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Welcome to Dedicated with Doug Brunt.

You have just gained access to an exclusive insider's look at the lives and works of some of your favorite authors and hear conversations with the world's greatest writers as they discuss their writing lifestyle, creative process, latest work, and behind the scenes revelations.

Welcome to Dedicated. i'm your host dog brunt today we're with gareth russell he is a preeminent and award-winning british historian he's written plays

he's written novels and he has of course written several works of nonfiction including the

2019 book the ship of dreams the sinking of the titanic and the Ship of Dreams, the Sinking of the Titanic and the

end of the Edwardian era. The 2002 book, Do Let's Have Another Drink about the Queen Mother.

Both were named Book of the Year by the Times London. His latest is The Palace, 500 years of

history at Hampton Court. It is a phenomenal and ripping narrative full of some of the most amazing British anecdotes and stories. I just tore through the book and loved it. And Gareth, it's an honor to have you here with us today. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so glad you enjoyed the book, Doug. That was amazing. I got your drink order, which is gin and Dubonnet. Actually, you know what? I said when I came in, I'm so impressed you managed to find the ingredients, because although it's only two, Dubonet is not what you would call a wildly popular choice. It's not in every liquor store. You know, I was lucky to get it on my first try. There's a good liquor store nearby me, and they happened. So I was one shot in.

Now, I had to look up ways to prepare this. Sure.

And so I did not know the secret, I guess it's not really a secret to anyone in Great Britain, of whose drink this really is.

Right.

I found out.

So it was the Queen Mother's beloved Tipple.

And it was a taste she passed on to her daughter, the late Queen Elizabeth

II. And I was quite lucky that when I worked into Let's Have Another Drink, my publishers

very kindly sent me a crate of Dubonet. Because when Elizabeth II passed away in September

of 2022, there was a national shortage throughout the United

Kingdom because so many people went to buy it to sort of give a last toaster send-off,

...