Royal Family Pays Tribute To The Queen

The royal family has paid tribute to the Queen's ability to "bring a room to life" as she prepares to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.

"Whenever Granny walks into a room, everyone stands up, stops, and kind of just watches her," the Queen's granddaughter Princess Eugenie told a BBC1 Documentary.

"Obviously it's huge when she walks into a room and I find that incredible," said the Duke of York's daughter.

In her 60 years as monarch, the Queen has seen 12 US Presidents and 12 British Prime Ministers come and go.

In that time she has carried out more overseas tours, attended more state dinners and shaken more hands than she can probably remember.

Prince Harry explained that it is all "in the way that she carries herself forward, smiles constantly, able to go into a room and bring the room to life".

"These are the things that at her age she shouldn't be doing and yet she's carrying on and doing them, not only in this country, but all around the world."

Which is why the Queen is the most travelled monarch in history.

Images chronicling the Queen's six decades as monarch are on show from today at Windsor Castle.

The "60 Photographs For 60 Years" exhibition of press images shows the Queen just as at ease with the world's most powerful figures as she is with her own family.

One photograph shows the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh with President John F Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline at Buckingham Palace, on June 5, 1961.

Another sees the Queen in 2006 at the Braemar Gathering in fits of laughter alongside her son Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

The Queen in a third photo leans against a Land Rover alongside her husband at the Badminton Horse Trials on April 20, 1968.

The Duke of Cambridge Prince William said: "She is professional in her ability to know how to move around, who to speak to and also how to engage with people within a few split seconds of meeting them."

Princess Anne, the Queen's only daughter, explains "to some extent, it's in the genes".

"I think there is an understanding of getting out and about. You actually have to go and meet people to find out what's really going on, and give people a sense of your understanding of what is happening."

With little sign of downscaling her vast number of responsibilities, the Queen's not about to stop pressing the flesh - or glove - for some time to come.