Court Circular

A recent article in The Times described possible changes that could take place in the style of official communications from Buckingham Palace.

The Court Circular is a unique record of the working lives of the Queen and the Royal Family and is published daily in The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Scotsman. It records investitures, visits by VIPs, Heads of State and diplomats, the events, lunches, state dinners and receptions undertaken by the Royal Family. It is written in very formal style.

The article showed examples of an early Court Circular dated 1785, a recent example from 1998 and a suggested future version. You should look at several up-to-date Circulars, which are not the same as the list of Royal engagements featured on the Monarchy website at www.royal.gov.uk

A criticism of the Circular at present is that it is "formulaic" and lacks life. "There is no adequate chronicle of Royal Family life between the Court Circular and Hello! magazine" according Palace officials. The future version would be "more appealling" and "more accessible". It is likely to be more news-driven than the Circular, to feature personalities of interest to a young readership and be written in a journalistic style, though not as populist as a tabloid newspaper.

Read the three examples below and find more current examples from newspapers. Comment on the differences between the three styles.

Choose suitable events from the authentic Court Circular and rewrite them into a modern version. You may present it either as a page from a newspaper or as a Web page for the Monarchy website.

Comment on the style you have adopted.