With the possible exception of the Duke of Edinburgh,
Nelson Mandela must have been the only man on Earth
who called the Queen “Elizabeth”. He was certainly the first and last human being to greet her with a cheery, “Oh Elizabeth, you’ve lost weight!”
Mandela in old age could get away with just about anything. As he travelled the world in his ninth and 10th decades, doing good works, dispensing homilies and sprinkling stardust over all he met.
