Rider Haggard coined the phrase in his novel, but Mortimer popularised it with Rumpole. At the time, enough young English lads would have been reared on Rider Haggard's splendid colonial, orientalist novels for it to be a very recognisable cultural reference. "She Who Must Be Obeyed" is the immortal Semitic queen of a lost African plateau, who is both terrible and alluring. She had to be Semitic, and not African, because the English hero of the story has an affair with her. It would have been a step to far for an Englishman to have an affair with an African, but with given Europe's long fascination with the Arab world, it was acceptable. It's racist tosh, but great fun.
Now, anyone got a TZD?
I am having such bad withdrawals from TZDs
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