Elizabeth, the last matriarch The missing queen wielded her power so skilfully that it was invisible. A profound influence that never backfired. Wisdom, an iron sense of duty, pragmatism, emotional control and no narcissism: these are the traits of sovereignty that make her a model of female authority
Gaby Hinsliff for The Guardian Stop all watches. Unplug the phone. For once, the opening lines of WH Auden's poem, Funeral Blues, seem appropriate to the moment. Like it or not, much of public life will come to a halt in the days of mourning as broadcasters suspend their programmes and a state funeral is prepared. However long it may have been predicted, the death of the longest reigning monarch in British history is a moment [...]
