Ma’am’s charms

A phone from the Seventies. A miniature guardsman like Philip. And corgis galore! How the snapshot of the Queen calling Boris spoke volumes

At A time of national emergency it is hard to think of a more reassuring image.

the photo of the Queen at Windsor Castle on the phone to Boris Johnson does not just assuage fears for the health of our 93-year-old monarch, it resolutely declares it is business as usual.

Coronavirus may prevent their weekly face-to-face audience at Buckingham Palace but Sovereign and Prime minister can still talk to one another.

Yet the photo of the encounter, issued by the Palace on its social media account, is also remarkably revealing, offering a glimpse of the Queen’s unchanging routine.

All around her are constant reminders of bygone years when the lives of the royals appeared so much gentler and less troubled.

At the same time the picture has a timeless and dependable quality to it, from the old-fashioned rotary-dial telephone to the mementos and knick-knacks that are so evocative of her life as both monarch and country woman.

they all disclose something about the kind of person the Queen is and what is dearest to her heart — dogs, horses and the armed forces. Unlike her Christmas Day broadcasts, when family photos are carefully curated to be part of the background, none are visible here.

For many ‘living like royalty’ has been a notion by which they have measured their own success and ambitions. here, then, is a shot of what life is really like behind those 13ft-thick castle walls.

this is the oak Room in the private apartments where the Queen conducts both personal and official business. It has none of the grandeur and opulence of many of the state rooms but President trump sat here when he met the Queen in 2018 and it is where she entertained Prince William, Kate and their children for tea less than a month ago — on the same day Prince harry came to lunch.

In Queen Victoria’s time it was a dining room and is named after the oak panelling which adorns the walls. It is not the Queen’s private sitting room — that is a refuge where she rarely allows photos to be taken — and many of the items on the mantelpiece and on her crowded desk are official gifts of the kind often presented to her to mark a royal visit.

But that doesn’t detract from the unvarnished charm of the royal home that is her favourite official residence, less stuffy than Buckingham Palace and with the 5,000 acres of Windsor Great Park on its doorstep.

While she and Philip self-isolate at Windsor, she is unable to ride but she is walking her dogs, receiving Government papers and speaking to friends on the phone.