The Royal Wedding Edition of #BriFri

Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed the film Darkest Hour. Becky reviewed a classic novel (Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope) and a biography (Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart by John Guy). Gaele reviewed four books: a women’s fiction novel by a debut author (Secrets and Tea at Rosie Lee’s), a novel about a road trip through England and Scotland with a 66-year-old woman (The Runaway Wife), a story about being a boomerang child (Escape to the Country), and another escape by a young woman, this time to Rome (One Summer in Rome). Sim shared information about the soundtrack, and the making of it, for the film On Chesil Beach, which opens today!

I was successfully ignoring the royal wedding until Monday, but the world got excited and swept me up in it.

By Jonathunder – Own work, GFDL 1.2, Link

Race in the UK. I follow a couple of British black activism feeds on Facebook. They’ve been pretty blasé about the whole thing, pointing out that the presence of Meghan Markle at Kensington Palace has even less potential to end racism in the UK than the presence of Barack Obama in the White House did for the US.

However, it was from one of those feeds that I learned that the Most Reverend Bishop Michael Curry, the first African-American elected as presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, will deliver the sermon at the wedding. For those of you not up on the relationships between protestant denominations, both the Episcopal Church and the Church of England are part of the world-wide Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church was formed in the US after the American Revolution when it was no longer appropriate for the clergy to swear allegiance to the King.

The Archers. I regularly listen to a podcast of The Archers, the world’s longest running soap opera, a BBC4 Radio Show. They ignored the royal wedding until Monday, too. But, then we started hearing about cakes and banners decorated with both the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack. I’m touched that the American flag is featured in the British celebration — it makes me feel like a welcome spectator, rather than an interloper.

Saturday at Windsor Castle. I won’t get up early to watch the wedding tomorrow, but I’m sure I’ll spend at least an hour looking at photos of dresses, hats, carriages, and kisses. There are lots of fun details, including the schedule, maps of Windsor, and an interview with the Crown Equerry Colonel who runs the royal mews in this article from the Telegraph.

Will you watch the royal wedding?

Comments

The Royal Wedding Edition of #BriFri — 10 Comments

gaele on May 18, 2018 at 10:28 am said:

I will watch it – but further on in the day. I’m not at all interested in the US coverage – so I’ll probably queue up Brit Box or BBC … It’s been an interesting bit of compare/contrast – while I don’t think that the presence of Meghan will change many behaviors – and that saddens me – I think that the takeaway for most Brits will be the crap and scenes her ‘family’ – father’s kids – not actual full siblings) are causing because well – they can. And – when you add in the general tendency that appears to be the norm these days of zenophobia and fear of those ‘different’, with nationalist overtones that are popping up world wide.

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Sim Carter on May 18, 2018 at 11:03 am said:

I’d invited my elderly neighbor—born in Guernsey—to come at 4 AM to watch the wedding as she’s been very interested in the proceedings. Yesterday, she bowed out saying that even for her—always up by six in the morning and out sweeping her patio—it was too early.
I’ll still wake up early to watch, but I’ll watch from bed.
I hate that the wedding is bringing out an ugly racist streak, I am not surprised. As for her family’s behavior, we all have members of our families and extended families that might not look so good under the bright light of scrutiny. The hope is that we can all be judged by our own actions and behavior. period.

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Becky on May 18, 2018 at 11:40 am said:

I will watch it. You might find this article interesting. http://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/news/call-the-midwife-singers-prince-harry-meghan-markle-wedding

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Dale Weese on May 18, 2018 at 11:59 am said:

I won’t watch. I’m mildly interested in the state of freedom of (from) religion in the U.K. Maybe not enough to research it.

It’s only been 80ish years since a king abdicated so he could marry a divorced American woman, because the church (founded so a king could divorce) would not allow it. And only 60-odd years since a princess was not allowed to marry a divorced man and keep her title due to pressure from said church. Then they let Prince Charles marry a divorced woman, after he’d already bred heirs. Now an unlikely heir (6th or something?) is allowed to marry Meghan. That looks like progress, I guess.

What if the Duke of Cambridge, or his heir, someday announces that he’s an atheist? Or even just a person with secular preferences separate from organized religion (like most people). Will he abdicate? Or will government (insofar as British royalty is actually government) be separate from the church?

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Jean @ Howling Frog on May 18, 2018 at 12:09 pm said:

I won’t bother to watch, but I’ll look at photos of clothing, esp. the wedding dress and the little kid outfits. I’m into heirloom sewing and enjoy casting a professional eye over the little girls’ dresses.

In fact, here’s a fun clash of worlds for you: I read some historical embroidery blogs and the specialists are annoyed because there’s a shortage of goldwork threads right now. It took a while for people to realize that’s because all the supplies got directed to the royal wedding for those fancy gold-encrusted uniforms.

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Haralee on May 18, 2018 at 2:01 pm said:

I am going to tape it and then I can fast forward and watch some. No tea sandwiches or hats required!

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Tina on May 18, 2018 at 2:40 pm said:

I won’t be watching, probably sorting through books to start purging soon! They make a nice looking couple, don’t they?

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Tizzy on May 18, 2018 at 3:09 pm said:

I won’t watch it live as I’m out tomorrow, but I’ll catch up with it later. I’m not particularly interested in the royals but I do tune in for events like this as all the pomp and ceremony is fun to watch, it’s a great spectacle. Harry is probably my favourite member of the royal family.

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Brona on May 19, 2018 at 2:03 am said:

We’re all for love and romance in our household, so we will be watching despite our leanings toward the Republic for Australia movement. Even B20 and B17 seem to be keen – could be their love of Suits though that’s influencing their behaviour though 🙂

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