Controversies
In 1998, Carey was accused of snubbing Queen Elizabeth II by declining an invitation to meet her after winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Jack Maggs (1997). While Carey is a republican, he insists that no offence was intended:
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- What happened, he explains, was that he had already been in England recently for a literary festival; he is booked for another trip soon, and had been travelling so much that he asked the prize organisers, "Would it be possible to see Her Majesty when I was actually in London?" "They thought it would be better just to cancel than for me to ask Her Majesty to do that. Then all this stuff started going out in English tabloids."
The meeting did eventually take place, with the Queen remarking, according to Carey, "I believe you had a little trouble getting here."
The unhappy circumstances of Carey's break-up with Alison Summers received wide publicity in 2006 when Theft: A Love Story appeared, depicting the toxic relationship between its protagonist, Butcher Bones, and his ex-wife, known only as "the Plaintiff".
Read more about this topic: Peter Carey (novelist)