I ran upstairs and luckily The Queen was free so I asked if she would be prepared to do a surprise performance for the Olympics opening ceremony.

Lots of people describe her as the Queen’s gatekeeper, but it’s more than that – she’s almost like one of the family. Earlier this year Her Majesty was also reported to have given Angela her blessing to reveal all her Covid lockdown secrets. The secret to the Queen’s unfailing style is royal couturier Angela Kelly, whose team of dressmakers and milliners spent two years designing and bringing to fruition the creations seen in the events leading up to and during the Diamond Jubilee, as well as at the Olympics.It contains lots of photographs of The Queen, her clothes and jewellery but it is impossible to appreciate the details on a small black and white screen. As the parade passed, there atop the splendid Spirit of Chartwell stood the Queen, resplendent against the wind and rain in a smart crystal encrusted white coat and pashmina shawl. The author and any budding author should take note: no one likes a chronic complainer or a tattle tale, it just sounds bad and is a bad look.

There are few occasions on which Her Majesty will agree to break protocol, but in 2011, when film director Danny Boyle approached the Royal Household, he had a request to make that we simply could not refuse. Mary Angela Kelly, LVO (born 4 November 1957, Liverpool), is a British fashion designer, dressmaker, and milliner, who served as Personal Assistant and Senior Dresser to Queen Elizabeth II from 2002 to the Queen's death in 2022. She loves fabric and clothes and feels privileged to have been the means of encouraging the Queen to transition to brighter colors and more modern designs. How she came upon this position and how her friendship with the Queen was so empowering and a breath of fresh air. The only gentlemen that I have ever known to enter these rooms are The Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal Family, because The Queen's privacy is the absolute priority among her personal staff.

Along with the claims about the staff's feelings towards the dresser, Brandreth's book also reveals the Queen's incredible stoicism during her final months. In an interview with the Telegraph in 2007, Kelly spoke of the moments she spent with Elizabeth: ‘We are two typical women. One of the good things about working in the same job for such a long time is that it allows you to put things right that haven't gone quite as planned in the past. Suitable for covering the sofa, was the way he put it, saving his wife the embarrassment of appearing in clothing unsuited for her petite figure. If you are someone who loves fashion and wants to know more about this aspect of the Queen and royal family and some new information about her personal life, this book will be a good choice.

After the Queen's death, it was announced that one of her last wishes was that Ms Kelly be allowed to live in one of the "grace and favor" cottages on the Windsor estate. I adore reading about the "everyday life" of the Queen and it is especially interesting to find out some of the intimate details and skills necessary to dress Her Majesty. She has a fantastic job and it's fair enough to be proud of what she has done, and I don't think she needs to be chippy about her position - but then again we can't tell just how much unpleasantness she might have put up with in the early days, when the Royal Household was maybe not too welcoming (seriously, her being divorced was an issue? Ms Kelly wrote: "I had a meeting with the owner of Paddy Power at which we agreed that betting on the colour of the Queen's hat would be closed at a certain time to avoid any cheating, but allowed people to carry on guessing the colour of the Queen's hat and perhaps even win a bit of money.year-old Kelly, who hails from Liverpool, has worked as the Queen’s ‘right-hand woman’ for just shy of 30 years. The book documents the unique working relationship between Her Majesty The Queen and the woman who has been her Personal Assistant and Senior Dresser for more than two decades: Angela Kelly. Angela Kelly, the designer and dressmaker who served as the late Queen Elizabeth II's Personal Assistant and Senior Dresser for 30 years, will remain at her grace-and-favour home on the Windsor estate following the monarch's death.