Another year, another Trooping the Colour.

The Queen and Prince Philip arrive at Horse Guards Parade

The splendid event is held on a Saturday in June each year to celebrate the Queen’s official birthday — her real one is in April.

As always, the BBC showed what a superb occasion it is with Huw Edwards describing the nuances and history in minute detail. He even had an exclusive interview with Prince Charles in full red and gold ceremonial dress.

Traditionally, the Queen processed down the Mall on horseback, riding an elegant sidesaddle. However, as age closed in and with the retirement of her faithful mount, Burma, she decided that a carriage would be more appropriate. The carriage itself has a lot of history behind it. It is Queen Victoria’s Ivory-Mounted Phaeton, first used in the 1840s.

Princes William and Harry and the Duchess of Cornwall

Prince William and Prince Harry arrived in a carriage together with the Duchess of Cornwall. Prince Charles rode down the Mall on horseback together with the Royal Colonels, Princess Anne and the Duke of Kent.

The Queen and Prince Philip take the salute

Finally, before the parade begins the Queen and the Duke take the salute and the National Anthem.

The rumour we mentioned earlier, that Autumn Kelly (now Phillips) was responsible for negotiating the contract which sold the Queen to a celebrity magazine, is gaining ground.

We are hearing that an unholy row has broken out in Royal circles over what has been a dismal start to Peter Phillips’s married life.

It began with the simple fact that the Kelly family could not afford to foot the £50,000 ($100,000) bill for the reception at Frogmore House. The mother of the groom, Princess Anne, refused to pick it up, as did his father, Mark Phillips.

Faced with those facts, most families would have arranged a much simpler “private” wedding with a small reception and buffet in a private house. However, Autumn decided to go for a celebrity-style pay-out and stage a big bash in magnificent Frogmore House in the grounds of Windsor Castle. The sum agreed is thought to be well above the $1m mark so far publicized.

When the first Hello! interview with the couple was published last week, the Queen was said to be mortified. The Palace launched what it called “a damage limitation excercise”. Severe restrictions were placed on who and what could be photographed, and the degree of access allowed. However, the magazine currently has the official photograph of the Queen and the couple on its website, giving the impression that they have bought the whole show. Nobody seems to know what might appear in Wednesday’s edition of the magazine.

This is a bad start to Autumn’s peripheral “Royal” career and will mark her out as “pushy” from the outset.

Is this where Zara Phillips gets her ability to jump over obstacles on horseback?

The Queen and Prince Charles helping Princess Anne into Balmoral

She certainly looks the part of a future Olympic sportswoman. A very young Princess Anne is shown being helped to climb into a window at Balmoral by the Queen and a youthful Prince Charles.

Nowadays, of course, such “shocking” behaviour would fall foul of the European Union’s “health and safety” rules. And she hasn’t even got a hard hat on!

Children do need adventure and real learning experiences. Both youngsters grew up to be fearless horse riders.

Methinks the Queen was a much better mother than she’s often given credit for.

This is one of the pictures released by the Palace in advance of Prince Charles’s 60th birthday next November.

The former self-styled First Lady of Britain, Cherie Blair, is to write her memoirs. The book is said to have attracted a £1.5m ($3m) advance from a British publisher and could make even more in America.

Cherie Blair grovelling to the King of Norway

The volume, Cherie Blair: The Autobiography is timed for publication in October 2008, just before the Labour Party Conference. Speculation has it that she’ll go hammer and tongs for her arch-enemy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

However, it’s thought likely she will also attack the Royal Family. Her republican sympathies made life difficult for the Queen and Prince Philip over the past ten years, and they were probably relieved to see the back of her when Tony Blair recently resigned.

She relentlessly refused to curtsey to Her Majesty even though she was pictured grovelling to the King of Norway outside 10 Downing Street (see picture). Her speciality was openly yawning at Royal occasions. The annual weekend at Balmoral was said to be “bloody” by those who witnessed it.

The Queen is reported to have described her as “hectoring and aloof” when she turned up at functions, and Prince Philip could hardly bring himself to speak to her at all.

Cherie’s relationship with the proud Princess Anne was not much better. “That bitch”, Ms Blair called her after a Buckingham Palace party.

The book will be welcomed by gossip-mongers, those who love to hate, and especially anyone waiting for Cherie Blair to fly her true colours unimpeded by Downing Street protocol.

It should be a “bloody” affair.