Following his statement on Kate Middleton to the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport last week, Royal photographer Arthur Edwards is big news across the press right now.

The hearing was on the subject of Kate Middleton’s privacy, but it was his views on a possible marriage to Prince William that took the headlines. MPs were told that the William had spoken openly to him about his intentions of marrying Kate.

“She’s in love with Prince William … I have talked to him about that and he’s made it clear he wants to get married.”

Of Prince Charles : it seems they rub along pretty well. Edwards even sees himself part of the Royal retinue. “When I go to meet these world leaders, Prince Charles tells them : ‘Mr Edwards has been with me for 30 years. Is that right Arthur?’ and I say ‘Yes sir’.

The Independent newspaper says :

So intimate is Edwards’ knowledge of the interaction between the Royals and the press that he was recently summoned by MPs to give evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee… . Edwards made headlines that day as he claimed to have it on personal authority from Prince William that he would marry his girlfriend, Kate Middleton. “I have talked to him about this,” Arthur told the committee.

Edwards says that his presence before the committee gave him the chance to make a serious point about the threat posed by paparazzi photographers to the safety of the woman who may one day be Queen. “I spoke passionately about what I believe. They are in danger of doing to her what the press did to Princess Diana,” he says. “I know in my day I did lots of pictures of Princess Diana but I didn’t harass her and I didn’t photograph her intrusively just for a picture of her that day.”

How about Easter for an engagement announcement?

Kate Middleton spent Cheltenham Gold Cup day at a lunch hosted by the Queen’s Master of the Horse, Lord Vestey. Prince William was absent, presumed training with the Army — not a bad excuse as excuses go.

Pictured in the Royal Box clearly enjoying the thrills and spills of the chase, Kate was easily the centre of attention, even among the thousands of fanatical Irish supporters who come over from the Emerald Isle each year.

Spare a thought for them today, as many will have been carried to trains in a tipsy condition, heading for the port towns of Liverpool or Swansea where ferries will take them back to their horse-mad island.

Come to think of it, Kate looks a little horse-mad too. Could her ongoing riding lessons, or conversations with horse-nut Zara Phillips, have anything to do with it?

We were not told if Kate won anything at Cheltenham, or if her boyfriend had to send extra funds in an armoured car.

Prince William showed off his new intellectual look yesterday as he was pictured wearing a pair of designer spectacles while driving his black Audi saloon.

As he approaches his 25th birthday, and with a long-term girlfriend, Kate Middleton, it’s time the officer Prince settled down to a more mature and serious lifestyle. He certainly looks the part.

I wonder if he got them from his friend, Jamie Murray Wells, who runs the website, GlassesDirect.co.uk? Jamie has made a small fortune undercutting the big spec chains and started the business on his student grant in a disused stable block.

Let’s hope William gave the internet entrepreneur some Royal business. Will it now be : GlassesDirect.co.uk, by Appointment to His Royal Highness, the Prince William?

We shall see. So, we hope, will William in his glasses.

While Kate Middleton and Prince William enjoyed a day at the Cheltenham Festival of National Hunt racing (pictured with Zara Phillips), speculation ran riot over a possible engagement.

Veteran Royal photographer Arthur Edwards apparently fanned the flames at a House of Commons committee meeting last week when he told MPs that Prince William “had spoken to him about getting married”.

Edwards gets on with most members of the Royal Family as he’s always courteous and never pushy. He knew Princess Diana personally and appears on most TV programmes about the Royals as an expert commentator.

If William is talking to him about a wedding, it’s clearly on the cards. One leading bookmaker is now refusing to take bets on the event taking place.