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Dog biscuits seem to be a relatively common addition to the luncheons that the Queen throws for her guests.

That’s because Her Majesty absolutely dotes on her pet corgis, allowing them to sit nearby and under the table to be fed snacks as she converses with her human guests.

Dr David Nott, a war surgeon, had the rare opportunity of feeding the Queen’s corgis at a 2014 lunch event at Buckingham Palace.

The 20-minute exchange with the Queen’s corgis apparently really helped him deal with the trauma that he had been subjected to after what he witnessed in Aleppo during the Syrian war.

It helps that he didn’t eat the corgis’ snacks himself, I suppose, unlike a Cabinet minister who sat with the Queen for lunch after the verdict of the inquest into the death of Diana had come out, reported The Telegraph:

Alan Johnson [below], the then health secretary, revealed how he inadvertently munched on the dog food following a meal at Windsor Castle – the day after the Diana inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing in 2008.

Image: Oli Scarff/Getty Images Europe

The tale has come to light in Queen of Our Times, a book by former Daily Telegraph journalist Robert Hardman.

The story goes that Johnson only found out that he had been munching on dog biscuits until after he left the lunch with Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary at the time:

“The two Cabinet ministers left in high spirits,” the book reads. “‘We were waiting for our cars and Paul said, ‘What a wonderful meal’. I said, ‘I loved it. I loved every minute of it.’

“As they discussed the food, Johnson mentioned that he had particularly enjoyed the cheese and the unusual dark biscuits. Paul said, ‘No, the dark biscuits were for the corgis!’.

“At that point – to Alan Johnson’s eternal amusement – it suddenly dawned on him that he had been munching away on dog snacks. ‘I don’t think I’d had cheese with a Bonio biscuit before’.”

Perhaps it was his nervousness considering the occasion, having attended a Privy Council meeting with other ministers just before being invited to stay for lunch by the Queen:

Recalling how the newspapers were “full of the latest news on the Diana inquest”, after 94 days in court and hearing 278 witnesses, Mr Johnson told Hardman he thought he should “steer well clear” of the subject of the inquest.

But the lunch actually turned out to be quite a blast, with the Queen being “good company” throughout, almost as if “you’d known her for years”.

Of course, informalities with the Queen have their limits, as Johnson admitted, “Obviously, there were the caveats that you understood – you don’t put your arm on her shoulder and say, ‘Let me tell you . . .’ and so on.”

Although, she might have chuckled if he had told her about those dog biscuits.

[source:telegraph]