I am currently reading George V: Never a Dull Moment by Jane Ridley and am very much enjoying it.

Ms. Ridley notes that within George’s childhood household it was normal to refer to people and places as “dear little” or “poor little.” She quotes Marie, Queen of Romania, who wrote that this practice made it seem “as though life would have been very wonderful and everything very beautiful, if it had not been so sad.”

And it’s true, isn’t it? Life would be very wonderful and everything very beautiful if it was not also so sad. This is one of those things I would like to cross-stitch for display but I know I’ll never actually do it.

Dear little Jane Ridley must have enjoyed this line as well because she also quoted it in her earlier book about George’s father, Edward VII.