6 ROYAL TOUR ECH-E01-S3 WEEKEND WEEKEND ECH-E01-S3 ROYAL TOUR 7 Win £100 of books Knit your own On the buses with Waterstone’s royal wedding IF you’re celebrating Kate and Wills’ big day on Friday, it’s wise to stock up your bookshelves. Waterstone’s in Cheltenham and Gloucester have all the tomes you need to toast the happy couple. For those needing to swot up on their Royal etiquette, there’s The Royal Wedding for Dummies by Julian Knight (£7.99). in royal style Beautiful keepsakes to commemorate the occasion include William & Kate: Celebrating a Royal NE will be frantically waving Engagement by Robin Nunn Kate Middleton being mobbed at Cheltenham (£14.99), or toast the one’s flag at the Royal newlyweds with your own OWedding. And I’ll feel a little racecourse, a waitress serving up dodgy boiled Royal Wedding Photograph more justified then some after eggs to the Princess Royal and a very sickly Mug (£8.99). You can even having paid homage to ‘The Firm’ king –the royals’ secrets are laid bare on a give the Queen a run for on a coach tour of Gloucestershire’s her money with the Racing WITH a cast including the Queen, Prince jewels in the crown. new coach tour of Gloucestershire, as Royals Twin Pack (£6.99). Philip, Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince I joined a group of what was safe to say were CAROLINE FISHER discovered when she We’ve teamed up with Harry and the Archbishop of Canterbury, 19 pro-monarchists on the launch of Waterstone’s to offer one lucky reader a £100 gift you can create your very own royal Cheltenham-based coach company Marchants’ hopped on board with the tourists card to spend instore or online at wedding –with wool. Royal Connections tour –coinciding with the www.waterstones.com, on royal books or otherwise. Knitter Fiona Goble has created hilarious Queen’s 85th birthday. To be in with a chance of winning, answer the patterns for every member of the royal The wheels on the bus took us to just about following question. At which university did Prince wedding party –including the corgis. every corner of the county which had a link William and Kate Middleton meet? Wills is in his RAF uniform and Kate with the royals, on the eve of Prince William a) Oxford b) Exeter c) St Andrews comes complete with a tiara, while the and Kate Middleton’s Big Day. Send your answer on a postcard with your name, Queen is in fetching royal blue. The aim of the new all-day tour was to draw address and daytime phone number to Waterstone’s The book, complete with patterns, more visitors into an area which is closely Competition, Features Dept, Gloucestershire Media, aligned to the House of Windsor. instructions and a fold-out card balcony Reporter Caroline Fisher about to jump 3rd Floor, St James’ House, St James’ Square, to display the characters, costs £9.99. But And Blue Badge tour guide Anne Bartlett on board Marchants Coaches’ royal tour Cheltenham, GL50 3PR. The closing date is Saturday, we have 10 copies to give away. knew how to mix mainstream information April 30. See opposite for terms and conditions. To be in with a chance of winning, with off-beat, but insightful anecdotes to keep answer this question. Which royal hasn’t her patriotic passengers on the edge of their had an invitation to the wedding? seats. a) The Countess of Wessex We heard how Kate had been “mobbed by b) The Duchess of York the media” at Cheltenham racecourse - where c) The Duchess of Cornwall our tour started - on her first visit in 2006. The She was wearing a coat designed by Katherine Duchess of then another person to give to the Princess.” “We should have more tours like this, this -&-),*- *(- Send your answer on a postcard with will broaden your horizons.” your name, address and daytime phone Hooker, which was shortened for her first Cornwall on Esther was enthralled with the whole trip. number to Knit Your Own Royal official visit with Prince William, don’t you a visit to “I’m a royalist through and through,” she The tour wended its way through the Stroud +,& -$'" Wedding Competition, Features know. water used by our current monarch. Tetbury enthused. “Kate and Prince William are lovely Valleys, past Gatcombe Park, up to Department, Gloucestershire Media, 3rd Driver Steve Lewis took us through Prestbury grocer John Fogarty, a huge admirer but I don’t think they want all the fuss that’s Minchinhampton Common and to Avening $' *)- #*&- Floor, St James’ House, St James’ Square, Cheltenham to get some glimpses of majestic of the Queen Mother, could not go unnoticed happening –with dignitaries from all over the and Nailsworth, well off the tourist trail. We Cheltenham, GL50 3PR. The closing date monuments. and, despite his recent death, the Union flag developed, gardens were laid out with world coming to their wedding. It’s too lunched in Tetbury and took in the obligatory is Wednesday, April 27. Local lad Gustav Holst’s praises were sung as was still flying on his old thatched shop. bandstands and walks and rides so fashionable commercial and overwhelming, it should just Highgrove shop, with all its profits –from people could promenade with their friends. satsuma marmalade to honey spoons –going Rules: Winners will be contacted by telephone. we whizzed past his humble terraced By now, we were begging for more of Anne’s be people they love.” Winners may be required to take part in publicity. to the Prince’s Charities Foundation. birthplace. His composition I Vow To Thee often irreverent and ‘not-in-the-history-book’ “Here was an opportunity for new friendships We had a coffee break No cash alternative is offered. No purchase to develop, a chance to flirt, to find an Then it was up hill and necessary. Employees of Gloucestershire Media are My Country was sung at Princess Diana’s tales of sovereignty. in Cirencester –a Cirencester’s not eligible to enter. The Editor’s decision is final. wedding in 1981 and her funeral in 1997 and aristocratic husband or wealthy wife, to flaunt favourite shopping haunt down dale through She told us it was King George III who really new clothes, to frequent tea rooms and Market Place, a Wooton-under-Edge, was actually called Thaxted, after where he of Princess Diana and favourite haunt of seemed to put Cheltenham on the map. bookshops and complain about the North Nibley and lived for much of his life. Princess Anne. Princess Di Highgrove peek In 1788 he had a nasty bilious attack and his extortionate prices.” So what’s changed? Stinchcombe, to the The Malverns also had a special mention, as doctor recommended the Cheltenham waters. Guide Anne said she Queen Elizabeth I drank the water in public in But the best story of the day came from one hoped the tour would Severn Vale and Berkeley ROYAL-watchers and garden-lovers will the 16th century, Queen Victoria refused to Staying with Lord Fauconberg at Bayshill of the passengers, Esther O’Sullivan, who’d capitalise on foreigners’ Castle to hear about King have the chance to step inside the travel without it and it’s the only bottled House for five weeks, he set a trend for beaten The Queen by celebrating her 84th interest in the royals, Edward ll’s gruesome hallowed gates of Prince William’s family hordes of visitors. Anne said: “Theatres birthday the day before. afford them a little death after a red hot home next month. Esther, from Benhall, praise and inspire locals poker was inserted On May 10, the charity Hospitality Action had served our Queen’s to find out more. somewhere unmentionable. is hosting afternoon tea and a tour of great aunt Alice, the “The royal family does a tremendous amount, Our last stop was Gloucester Cathedral to +,#* *(- (,%% !+%&- ,* Prince Charles’ private gardens to raise then Princess Royal, at particularly Prince Charles, and he doesn’t see the aforesaid King’s elaborate tomb, funds for its own coffers, and The Prince’s Cheltenham’s The get the credit he should, because he supports which attracted pilgrims far and wide. &&-'+)+"( ,) Charities Foundation. Queen’s hotel in 1954. so many local charities,” she said. The place of worship has held the one and '+ ,-&-),*$+' )'!( ($&#* ,*!($'" The exclusive 90-minute tour will enable The royal requested a Tourists Clive Atkins, from London and his only coronation for a king of England outside *(- +,& -$'" $*( ,"&,## + !(,%,"'- guests to view Highgrove’s stunning London, since William the Conqueror was boiled egg for breakfast. Finnish wife Viola, wanted to see what the %-) %-)#+' grounds, which the prince has spent Esther, a young forthcoming marriage would bring. crowned in Westminster Abbey. almost 30 years cultivating. ) *-)'++' -, $'*(- )-,* ,&& $*( chambermaid, told chef Clive said: “Kate and William signify a new King John’s heir, nine year old Prince Henry, One of the most innovative gardens of our who promptly put a generation. They have a lot to learn. I see was hurriedly crowned in 1216. He +)- !(,%,"'- %-) %-)#+' time, it promotes organic principles and brown egg into the same William as a young David Cameron and Kate transformed the east end of Westminster seasonality and is also home to the saucepan with some is joyful, outgoing and refreshing.” Abbey into a church to rival France’s gothic National Collection of hostas. cathedrals in honour of his hero Edward the boiling peas. She said: “I Chandri Gokani, a paediatric nurse from With lunch at Luckham Park, one of was horrified and told Confessor.