When the Ceausescus came to tea

Anyone still in any doubt about the lengths to which Queen Elizabeth II was prepared to go in the line of duty might consider the hideous company the role at times foisted on her. In 1991, she had to clink glasses with Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, and 20 years earlier had dined with Ugandan despot Idi Amin (though she later privately vowed to hit Amin with a sword if he dared to gatecrash her Silver Jubilee). But perhaps none of these grisly encounters was as gruelling as having to host Romanian tyrant Nicolae Ceaușescu and wife Elena on a three-day state-visit, complete with Palace quarters, in 1978.

Though a domestic monster, Ceaușescu’s international stock at the time was high. Ten years before, he’d been the one Communist leader to condemn the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, earning him plaudits in the West. 1977 had seen a terrible Romanian earthquake – more than 1,000 people perished, many more were injured and much of Bucharest’s centre reduced to rubble.