Sarko, Her Maj and us

Nick and I had the enormous, and to me inexplicable, treat of dining at Windsor Castle last night at the state banquet given by the Queen for the President of France. Inexplicable because I am still not at all certain why we were invited.

The great majority of the nearly 160 guests sitting round the (surely) mile-long table in the recently restored medieval St George’s Hall were either heirs to the throne (there were the seven closest with their spouses), part of the royal or presidential entourage, establishment figures such as the splendidly named Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup...