My husband and I (I sound like the Queen already!) went on a coach trip to London to visit Buckingham Palace, which is open to tourists while Her Maj is away. But it wasn't the attraction of the present royal family which caused us to go on the journey, it was the sense of history. The State Rooms are magnificent, and one appreciates the Georgians and Victorians embellishing it over the centuries.

If all the royals decamped to Barbados tomorrow, there would still be vast numbers of visitors wanting to see all the historical buildings of London, plus Sandringham, Holyrood etc. The Tower is one of the most popular attractions, and I'm fairly sure it's the beheadings and incarcerations which tourists find fascinating, not our present Queen.

I was alive when George VI was King, and I remember my mother telling me he'd died. How times have changed since those days!