Keepers of the Kingdom: The Ancient Offices of Britain

by Alastair Bruce, photographs by Julian Calder and Mark Cator

Vendome Press, 224 pp., $40

There’s a striking paradox behind this intriguing book: The author writes in his introduction that “because of recent trends towards populist politics, the monarchy — does not seem to understand and cherish historic titles” which seems so odd given the grand heraldry evident in the Master of the Worshipful Company of Skinners, the Queen’s Remembrancer, and the Chief Butler and Grand Carver of England, all of whom make appearances here. The photographs are the real treasure. Some are forceful evocations of the past — the High Sheriff of the Bailiwick of Norfolk sitting in a forest Robin Hood must have trekked through — while others represent the ancient officeholders as they fulfill modern responsibilities (the Chancellor of the Exchequer as he’s about to explain tax code changes to a national television audience from No. 11 Downing Street). Nirvana for the Anglophile on your list.

This article appears in December 24 • 1999.

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