No monarch has been more loved or held in higher esteem

As our 95-year-old Queen celebrates her official birthday, the author of a fascinating new biography examines the secret of her enduring magnetism

- Matthew Dennison

HERS is an extraordinary balancing act. Elizabeth II is simultaneously the most famous woman in the world and among the least well-known. Her portrait by Arnold Machin, based on black-and-white photographs taken by John Hedgecoe in June 1966 and used on every British stamp since 1967, has become the most reproduced work of art in history.

Millions of her subjects have dreamed about her – usually that she is visiting them at home for tea. Yet of the private thoughts of the woman behind Machin’s regal profile, we know almost nothing.

And this is precisely how it is likely to remain.

Alone in her immediate family, the Queen has never given an interview, never spoken to a journalist or biographer, never appeared on a chat show – and never, unlike the Duke of Sussex, aired her views in a podcast.

OVER her record-breaking seven decades on the throne, Elizabeth II has worked successfully to maintain both the monarchy’s dignity and its widespread support.

She has promoted the Royal Family’s work in aid of good causes and her role as head of the nation, and she has made clear the enjoyment she gains from rewarding good work on other people’s parts, especially voluntary sector workers, through the honours system and Palace investiture ceremonies.

Through a number of innovations she has made the Crown more accessible than ever. The royal walkabout, tried out first in Wellington, New Zealand, in March 1970, then in Coventry and Manchester later that year, made informal contact between monarch and subjects the norm.

Conversations on those occasions are often surprising, like the moment in Sheffield in 1982, when the Queen told a group of housewives she, too, had difficulty keeping her floors clean.