I have just finished reading the beautifully toned piece by Ian Jack (They say the Queen was crowned in a different country. But some things in Britain never change, 10 September) and I was stirred to join in the discussion of mixed feelings and myths surrounding a family among us and yet so very far apart from us.
I grew up on the Balmoral estate, so my life was sometimes immersed in royal visits and all the razzmatazz that that brought, but mostly we lived a quiet rural life of snow and village gatherings among a quiet, humble people. We saw the royals often and would speak to them, but they were definitely very different and their concern was transitory and not genuine. I began to discern what polite, rather than genuine, interest meant. People think Jacob Rees-Mogg is out of kilter with most of us and that is exactly what the royal family felt like – even more so in reality.
