An author of a children’s book celebrating the “endearing love story” of the Queen and her corgis has praised the support of her six-year-old daughter, who helped to get the tale recognised by the late monarch.
Caroline L Perry, 45, wrote The Corgi And The Queen in tribute to Elizabeth II’s decades-long relationship with the breed as it follows her and Susan, the matriarch of what became 14 generations of royal corgis, through her courtship and honeymoon with Prince Philip, the Second World War and her coronation.
The story, illustrated by Lydia Corry and out in the UK on Thursday, was made known to the Queen before her death in September when Ms Perry’s daughter, Eloise, sent a note and corgi drawing to Buckingham Palace in late 2021 after a year that saw the Queen mark 70 years of her reign and the death of Prince Philip.
“Because her husband died, (I wanted to) cheer her up, and because it was about Susan,” Eloise told the PA news agency.
“(And) I wanted to wish her a happy jubilee.”
Ms Perry added: “She wanted to cheer her up by sending her a nice card, she thought the Queen would love the book.”
Ms Perry, who is from London but moved to Los Angeles 15 years ago, explained that they soon received a response from Lady Elizabeth Leeming, a lady-in-waiting of the Queen’s.
Lady Leeming wrote to Eloise: “The Queen wishes me to thank you for your lovely card and for your message, written with a little help, in which you told Her Majesty of the book.
“Although The Queen is unable to reply to you personally, Her Majesty was touched by the nice things you said and I am to thank you, very much, for your thought for the Queen at this time which is greatly appreciated.”
Ms Perry said her daughter was “very excited” by the letter, which came with the royal seal.
“She was really, really happy because she thought that it would have cheered the Queen up and that she now knew about her good wishes that she had sent to her from Los Angeles,” the author said.
“Of course, sadly, she didn’t live to see the book but (Eloise) was still delighted that the Queen at least knew this book was on the way because she very much sensed that the relationship with Susan was a very special one.
“From when I started writing the book when she was only three, (Eloise) has been asking me for her very own Susan ever since.”
Ms Perry said that the book, which was released in the United States in November, has already “hugely impacted” lives, including the adoption of a young corgi by her literary agent’s daughter in Ohio, who has named the puppy Susan.
“It’s easy to see why the Queen loved them so much,” she said.
“They’re very feisty, very intelligent, very loyal and very charming.”
Eloise added: “(Corgis) are cute and clever… I want 30.”
Ms Perry said when the Queen was given her first corgi as an 18th birthday present in 1944, it “really started a love story for the ages”.
“Susan really was there for some of these momentous moments in history and Elizabeth just adored this little dog,” she said.
“I think before Philip, she was her true love.
“And the fact that all 14 generations of the Queen’s corgis were descended from that one dog, it was just such a remarkable story – it really humanised the Queen.
“For me to see that she was able to express herself through her animals in a way she perhaps wasn’t able to in her life with all the pressures that being the monarch entailed, a life devoted to duty… (It’s) an endearing love story.”
Ms Perry added that the book, published by Andersen Press, “honours” the relationship the Queen had with her royal dog dynasty.
It includes two family trees – one for the royals and the second for the corgis owned by the Queen throughout her life, which all started with Susan.
“I think she really would have loved this book, but now I really hope people view it as a tribute,” she said.
“And also (as) something that highlights another side to the Queen that not everyone’s aware of.
“The Queen wouldn’t have been the same Queen without her corgis, I think they very much helped to shape history, didn’t they?”
