As they left the castle’s grounds behind them, the Queen said, ‘It was on just such a lovely late-autumn day over forty years ago that Albert and I first saw Balmoral – the original Balmoral, that is. We had often talked of buying a Highland home, and Lord Aberdeen had inherited Balmoral from his late brother and had no wish to keep it. When he asked if we might like to buy it from him, we immediately came north to view it. There was no train line then to Ballater from Aberdeen. It was horse-drawn carriages to Banchory, and then a change of horse and on to Aboyone. The nearer we drew to Balmoral, the prettier and prettier the countryside got, until at last we crossed the River Dee and looked upon the castle for the first time. We knew at once that it would become ours; that Balmoral had simply been waiting for us.’

She clasped her mittened hands together tightly in her lap. ‘We were always so happy here. We rode ponies deep into the glens. We climbed the hills and Albert would spend days stalking stags with his ghillies, while I sat with my attendants and sketched and painted. Nowhere were we freer of the burden of royalty than here. Not even Osborne could match it. Albert said the glorious Highland scenery reminded him of the countryside around his beloved Coburg. As a family, we are all so very much more German than we are English. Unlike dear Willy, who is constantly torn between his German parentage and his English parentage, Albert was all-German, and how I loved him for being so. Although, like you, I was born at Kensington Palace, it is pure German blood that flows in my veins, and your blood is German, too. I know from your dear mama that you have always spent part of every year visiting relations in Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Württemberg and that you speak German fluently and love the country dearly.’

May was at a loss as to how to respond. Technically, of course, her blood was German, but she had never, ever felt German. She thought of herself as being English through and through, and yet quite obviously this was not what the Queen wanted to hear.

‘And I know you also speak French fluently and have more than a little Italian,’ Victoria continued, saving May from having to think up a response that would be adequate and yet, at the same time, truthful. ‘That is very admirable. All royalty should be fluent in as many languages as possible. Since Ella’s marriage to Sergei, I regret very much that I have no Russian. However, all my children have excellent German, French and Italian. Bertie could speak all three languages fluently by the time he was six, and yet his children’s French and German are deplorable, and Georgie and Eddy’s Italian is next to non-existent. It is something I cannot understand at all.’