JAIPUR: The Queen Mother in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan revealed today her childhood love of Elvis Presley and the fear she felt at her first ever sighting of a motor car.

Speaking at the Jaipur Literary festival in northern India, where she read extracts from her book “Treasures of the Thunder Dragon: A Portrait of Bhutan”, Her Majesty the Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck recalled her early upbringing in a tiny, isolated village in the west of the kingdom.

Her memories were of an austere but close-knit family life, where gender roles were blurred and husbands acted as midwives.

“My father delivered me as well as four of my brothers and sisters. He was very skilled with his hands,” said Queen Wangchuck, 59, the eldest of four sisters married to the former monarch Jigme Singye Wangchuk.

At the age of six, the future queen was uprooted when her father decided to send her and her younger sister to boarding school in Darjeeling in northeast India so that she could receive an English-language education.

The journey involved a challenging three-day trek across rugged terrain from the Bhutanese capital, during which the two young children were strapped to the saddle of a horse.

“My happiest memory at school was my first Elvis Presley movie. I even remember its name, ‘It Happened at the World’s Fair’. I thought he was wonderful,” she said.