IT'S A FUNNY OLD WORLD 'I'm meeting royalty but I can't curtsy!"

THIS WEEK'S COLUMNIST Bestselling author Patricia Cornwell

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Being presented to royalty is not something I ever 66 thought would happen - especially when I was a relatively unknown American writer. It all came about in the autumn of 1990. I was a full-time employee in the chief medical examiner's office - a place where I could observe autopsies - when the phone rang. It was my agent informing me that I had won a Best First Crime Novel award (the Creasey Award) in Great Britain, and it was to be presented by Princess Margaret.

I could I hung up and rushed downstairs. The chief examiner was in the middle of an autopsy - literally with a pair of forceps in his hand - when I rushed in to tell him and others the news. Do you think anyone gave a hoot?