Whenever I go to see her, she recharges my energy and enables me to cope with the many challenges and demands of my busy life.

I would put her appeal down to consistency. In their eyes, she has never let them down. There's a sameness, but at the same time a vitality.

Her friends say she is very funny. At a family dinner, she stood to go, and the footman very properly pulled her chair away. At that moment I asked her a question and she sat down again, except there was no chair. Everyone, including the Queen, laughed and laughed.

The queen is a great mother and a great parent, and so too is the Duke of Edinburgh (her husband Prince Philip), and we used to have wonderful fun racing up and down here at weekends, we'd do all sorts of things.

She knows everything. Everything. I don't know how she does it. And she sees everything.

She is incredibly fit. But we remind staff that she's not just the monarch, but our mother. There's no need to do six engagements in a day.