This is a special episode of the India Hicks Podcast on which India tells us of the traumatic events surrounding the hurricane in the Bahamas, the place she calls home, and how we can support these wonderful islands and people. Amongst many organisations, charities and foundations offering support, we are highlighting the group that was first to deliver relief to those hit hardest by Hurricane Dorian, a team of private sector captains and medics dispatched immediately into those hard to reach areas and the NGO founded by the heroes from the North Eleuthera evacuee efforts. Please consider donating to their essential work, as they continue to strive for long-term support on the ground as communities begin to rebuild.

www.idearelief.org

The Commonwealth Tour resumes, this time for six whole months, with Lady Pamela as Lady in Waiting to the new Queen. In this episode we hear all about life on board the new Royal Yacht, Britannia, the thrilling adventures in far-flung corners of the Empire and the pressures on the Royals as they made their way around the world. Intriguingly enough, it all starts with a Lebanese boyfriend…

Lady Pamela is first cousins with Prince Philip and also grew up very close to her, albeit more distant family, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret and of course their parents the King and Queen. Lady Pamela tells how the Royal couple met and married and what it was like being on the famous Commonwealth Tour, including that poignant moment at Treetops in Kenya when Princess Elizabeth is told her father, the King, has passed away, and how Princess Elizabeth, still only 25, returned to the UK as Queen.

With Royals, 'Subroyals', Grand Dukes and Duchesses, Tsars and Tsarinas in the family, having the likes of Noel Coward, Grace Kelly, Douglas Fairbanks, Wallis Simpson and Eisenhower visit was not so out of the ordinary. On this episode Lady Pamela tells stories of the grandmother she shares with Prince Philip, the extraordinary other family members and some of the wonderful characters the Mountbattens called friends. What highly unusual gift did Wallis Simpson bring for supper? Was the chef really a lion tamer? And what DO you do with a dead Indian Prince at the dining table?

Like so many families the Mountbattens' lives were disrupted significantly in the Second World War with Lady's Pamela's father, Lord Mountbatten, missing after his ship was sunk. In this episode India and producer Lisa are transfixed by Lady Pamela's account of being dispatched to New York to the house of the legendary Vanderbilts and the extraordinary time she had in their house next to Central Park whilst her parents, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, played key parts in the fight for Europe.

Imagine growing up in a house with a lion, a bear, a mongoose and a coatimundi (yes we had to look it up too). We're having tea and cake at home with Lady Pamela, daughter of Lord and Lady Mountbatten and India Hicks' much loved mum. In our second episode, India, Lady Pamela and producer Lisa Francesca Nand talk about the exotic creatures that both terrified and tantalised the Mountbattens and their equally exotic visitors, the curious occasion when Lady Pamela and her sister were left for months on end in a random hotel outside Budapest and much more.

The family and friends who visited the Mountbattens during Lady Pamela's childhood read like a list of who's who in royalty, politics, high society, the world's greatest authors and artists and Hollywood's finest. Lady Pamela Hicks, India Hicks and their producer Lisa, listen as Lady Pamela regales astounding stories of Kings, Queens and lovers and the weird and wonderful life of growing up as a Mountbatten.