Nigel Nicolson moved close to royal circles yet was not part of the Court. He has kept a daily diary throughout the years and has observed how a nation that still boasted an empire gradually down-sized to a sovereign state that is now part of the European community. In 1953 the Queen ruled over a country still recovering from the depradations of world war II. The royal family kept its private life private—Nicolson asks how and why that, and much else, has changed.