The Philip I knew was the best of company – and the best of men
As the Duke s biographer, Gyles Brandreth found him to be a brave man who showed unexpected moments of sensitivity
Gyles Brandreth knew the Duke of Edinburgh for almost 50 years
In the summer of 2000, in the run-up to the celebrations marking the 100th birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, I asked the Duke of Edinburgh, then 79, if he fancied the idea of living to be as old as his mother-in-law. “God Almighty,” he harrumphed, “I can’t imagine anything more ghastly. I’ll be dead long before then, I hope.”