Britain's Queen 'Hid' to Avoid Romanian Dictator - Book

A new book about the British monarch's diplomatic activities recounts how Queen Elizabeth "hid behind a hedge" in the garden of London's Buckingham Palace to avoid having to meet Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife during their controversial state visit to Britain in 1978.

The book says Queen Elizabeth agreed to host Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu under pressure from the UK Foreign Office but - after hosting the protocol carriage ride and state dinner - had no intention of exchanging another word with them.

"While out walking her dogs in the Buckingham Palace garden the next day, she spotted the Ceausescus coming the other way … And, as she later revealed to another guest, she hid behind a bush in her own garden to avoid them", Robert Hardman writes in Queen of the World, as cited in the UK Daily Mail.

The book describes the Ceausescu visit as an embarrassment from the word go.

The Foreign Office soon regretted its impetuous decision to invite the infamous duo to the UK, but by then it was too late.

Worries in London mounted after French President Giscard d'Estaing telephoned the palace to warn them that the Ceausescus had behaved like "burglars" on their visit to Paris, and had stolen a number of items from the Elysée.

The French leader warned the Queen to remove any items from their rooms in London that could be removed or even unscrewed.

The Queen followed the advice carefully, among other things removing the eminently steal-able silver-backed hairbrushes from the Belgian Suite in the palace.

But the troubles mounted when the British ambassador in Bucharest warned royal officials that the title-hungry Mrs Ceausescu would expect top-level academic degrees from the UK to bolster her fake...