WRITERS AND ROYALTY

A Garden Party Treat for our Honorary Members – 4th July 2023

Ann Burnett and Sheila Grant finally attended a Royal Garden Party, in thanks for their years of dedication to AYR WRITERS.

Here’s Ann’s blog account of the experience.

Princess Anne knows all about Ayr Writers Club! And how does she know? Because we told her. Nominated to attend the Royal Garden Party at Holyrood in celebration of our 50th anniversary, Sheila Grant and I dressed up in our posh frocks and fascinators, checked we had our photo ID and invitation, and set off for Edinburgh. The heavens opened and all the rain we had been hoping for during that long hot spell decided to fall. And it didn’t stop. By the time we had trudged across the grass outside the palace, queued up to get in and made our way to a marquee for shelter, we were soaked.

Fortunately, hot tea and goodies were on offer. We had been warned to expect tiny cucumber sandwiches but no, there was a magnificent spread of sandwiches, cakes and scones.  We tucked in as did the other 5,998 guests. Everyone was crowded in to keep out of the lashing rain, occasionally putting up a brolly and dashing over to another marquee.

The royal party weren’t due to arrive till 4.30 so we tried to keep warm by going for wee walks around the central area. We were just standing, wondering what to do next, when one of the Royal Company of Archers approached us to ask how we were doing and what we were representing. We told him all about the club and what we wrote, so out came his notebook and he jotted down our names and other details.

‘Wait there!’ he ordered. ‘Don’t move!” And off he dashed.

A few moments later, he was back to arrange us into a rough line and instructions to give a bob when royalty approached. And there she was, Princess Anne. Much smaller than expected but warmly dressed and carrying a large umbrella. ‘Hello, nice to meet you,’ says I shaking her hand and completely forgetting to bob. We told her about the 50th celebrations of the club and how our invitation had had to be postponed because of Covid. She was very easy to talk to and she said she knew Kilmarnock, where Sheila had lived until recently, as she’d competed in horse trials there. We had quite a long chat before she had to move on to the next couple. We were delighted at being picked to speak to her and celebrated by having another round of tea and cakes.

By the time the Royals had returned inside the palace, we were even wetter and chilled to the bone, my ivory sling back shoes were sodden and covered in grass and our fascinators had been bent out of shape by the numerous umbrellas swiping at them.

But we had had a wonderful time and hope we did the club proud. Thank you for the nomination and maybe Her Highness will apply to be an email member.

Congratulations, ladies, of course you did us proud!