Friends and former employees of Queen Elizabeth still share a certain “familiarity” with the monarch, royal biographer Andrew Morton has discovered, with some affectionately referring to her as ‘Aunty Liz’. 

The biographer spoke to the Times of Malta yesterday while in Malta to meet with those who had had any form of interaction with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip during their stay on the island while the prince served as a Royal Navy officer before his wife ascended the throne.

The Queen has since then often described living in Malta as the happiest time of her life.

“The people I’ve spoken to talk about her as Aunty Liz. There’s a kind of familiarity that people feel towards her, especially those who worked with her. And what is also interesting is that she kept in touch and still keeps in touch with people from all those years back,” Mr Morton said.

“She keeps in touch with their families. How many of us keep in touch with people when we’ve moved on? She did.”

The island, he said, was a key player in the life of not only Queen Elizabeth but the entire Royal Family, with the people that have come forward so far confirming that the monarch did indeed enjoy many happy moments while living on the island while her husband was serving as an officer between 1949 and 1951.

“Virtually every member of the Royal Family has visited here or lived here or been stationed here. It’s like the spiritual heart of the Royal Family. Even Meghan (Markle) came here!

“The abiding word when reading the correspondence and the conversations is the word ‘happy’. There’s a great deal of warmth and the fact that she seemed more relaxed. You get to see the human being behind the mask,” the biographer explained.

She still keeps in touch with people from years back

Those coming forward with recollections, he noted, were mainly former employees who worked for the then-princess or acquaintances who lived close to Villa Guardamangia, in Pietà, where the pair resided during their stay in Malta.

On whether he believed that the Maltese still felt a bond to Queen Elizabeth, Mr Morton said that the people he met seemed to still feel a genuine connection to her, adding that she was considered an “honorary Maltese” to some, as was Prince Philip.

Apart from the international bestseller about the late Princess Diana, Mr Morton has recently also written a biography on the latest addition to the Royal Family, Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry.

Asked about this and whether he believed that the Maltese felt the same connection to her as they did with the other royals, Mr Morton said that it was interesting that of all the people that the young prince could have married, he ended up with someone with links to the island.

“If you read what she had to say about Malta after her visit you can tell that she [Meghan] feels at home here and she feels that way because she has ancestors who were also here,” Mr Morton went on.

On some of the stories that would be featuring in his upcoming book, Mr Morton said that while still early days, the recollections would surely reflect details of the mutual respect between the Queen and her Maltese acquaintances.

“This man told me yesterday that he called her Aunty Liz and I thought to myself: ‘Oh, really?’

“But then he showed me some of the letters they sent each other and there it all was!”