Promoting literacy is an excellent cause, but I bet she'd rather be reading a book in bed.

Next month, it's the Order of the Garter ceremony at Windsor, while Camilla will hold her first Reading Room Festival at Hampton Court Palace. She lived in a village just outside Barnsley in Yorkshire, but the Queen and Prince Philip passed slowly by such an obscure part of her realm, waving and smiling. I'll never forget, aged three, being held on my father's shoulders outside my grandma's house.

Back to the station and home late at the end of a long day? Today, I wouldn't even consider it.īut yesterday the King was already digging holes at Whittle Laboratory in Cambridge and the couple's aides are said to be planning visits the length and breadth of Britain, just as his mother did post her Coronation.

Record a TV programme or appear at a book festival. To the railway station to take a train to, say, Glasgow. How easily can I manage the kind of trips I used to do without an ounce of concern? Out for dinner with a friend. I shall be 73 tomorrow and, busy as I like to be, I'm starting to consider for the first time how much I can cope with as the limbs get stiffer and a snooze in the afternoon becomes a regular event. King Charles III was crowned with St Edward's Crown by The Archbishop of Canterbury during his coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey on Saturday Might Charles, at the age of 74 and Camilla, 76 in July, decide in the not-too-distant future to pass the sword, the orb and the crown to his son? Frankly they both looked exhausted.Ĭan two people in their mid-70s host a reception for Very Important People from across the globe on a Friday night, get up the next day at the crack of dawn, be dressed, made up, hair done and put on a serene performance, knowing facial expressions will be remembered for ever.Īs William performed his duties to perfection and his wife looked every inch a Queen-in-waiting, I couldn't help wondering how long it will be before the next Coronation. It was at that moment of grumpiness that I, and I'm sure many others, began to wonder how King Charles III and Queen Camilla would cope with the huge pressure of what lay ahead. 'We can never be on time,' was what one lip reader later revealed he'd said. The next in line, the Prince of Wales and his family, had suffered some sort of delay and it's well known the King can't abide anyone being late. He and his wife had to wait in their grand carriage outside the Abbey. It was only 10.53am on May 6 and already the King was looking intensely irritated.

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