Now coming from a rather staunch royalist background, I have a stupid range of Windsor trivia clogging up my brane. In particular when it was decided that the FT group trip to the great british beer festival would be next Friday I immediately thought “ooh, it’s the queen mum’s birthday.” And, according to a memoir by her equerry, it appears (until the great british gin festival is introduced anyway) to be the best possibly place to celebrate the doddering old parasite. Gin and Dub at NOON, wine, port, fizz and martinis throughout the day, no wonder she was always smiling. You have to admire her devotion to the cause though, maybe she lived until she was 101 because she was effectively pickled…