It had started so well in Scotland the previous summer, when Diana had joined in with the after-dinner games, laughed at Prince Philip’s jokes, got wet, fallen into bogs, said all the right things. The nineteen-year-old passed into their august royal circle with flying colours. She had now received a magnificent oval sapphire and diamond engagement ring and was dazzled by romantic ambition, having caught what she called ‘the big fish’. But she had given little thought to what that actually meant for the future and hadn’t really considered what being a member of the royal family entailed. Now she would be condemned to live with the consequences. She was given a police escort wherever she went, moved into Buckingham Palace’s old nursery suite on the second floor and found that her freedom was gone.

The Queen was sympathetic to Diana’s anxieties, but had no inkling that she was already suffering from the bulimia that was to plague her for years to come. As much as she wanted to help, the Queen had the affairs of state to deal with and many of her own problems. On 14 June 1981, she had been riding on her faithful horse Burmese at Trooping the Colour when six pistol cracks rang out. Sudden fear gripped onlookers – had the Queen been shot? Fortunately, they were blanks and the Queen was unharmed and, thanks to her excellent horsemanship, not unseated.

‘It wasn’t the shots that frightened her – but the cavalry,’ the Queen said of her horse afterwards. ‘If someone wants to get me it’s too easy,’ she added. It was a serious threat to her personal security and in the light of the forthcoming royal wedding, security in general and surveillance were stepped up.

Just over six weeks later, the Queen and Prince Philip threw a pre-wedding party at Buckingham Palace for Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. It was the most lavish royal ball in over half a century, with a guest list that included just about every European royal, both major and minor, as well as America’s first lady, Nancy Reagan, a raft of prime ministers and heads of the Commonwealth. There were footmen and maids in attendance on each floor and every room in the palace was full, such was the pressure for accommodation. From the Queen’s point of view, the party was a showcase to entertain princes, kings and politicians. The wedding two days later was a state occasion and a showcase for the nation.

On the Prince of Wales’s insistence, the wedding ceremony took place in St Paul’s, not Westminster Abbey, because the cathedral could accommodate the three orchestras he wanted and the vast number of guests deemed necessary to be invited for such an event. Weddings are a declaration of hope for the future and this one was seen and shared in by more people than any in history.