“She will do exactly what she feels like doing,” says Sarah Bradford, author of Queen Elizabeth II – Her Life in Our Times. “There doesn’t seem to be any sign of her cutting back at present. It was striking that she showed up at the Commonwealth reception, which is just the sort of thing she loves. I suppose her advisers, such as they are, will be saying, 'Really, ma’am, you should do a bit less’, but she won’t listen to them. In the same way that she sees it as her duty to reign, and not to abdicate, she also sees it as her duty to do her duties. The other thing is, she actually likes doing it – she looked jolly as anything at that Commonwealth reception, and she was obviously not in too bad health.