Kerry Parnell: It’s not surprising Queen Elizabeth II needs a rest

Queen Elizabeth II has been ordered by doctors to rest but is it really any wonder she’s a bit tired? She’s still on the go 30 years after the rest of us retire, Kerry Parnell writes.

She’s got a better social life than me and she’s half a century older. It’s no wonder the Queen needs a lie down, she’s been gadding about so much, she’s making me giddy from my vantage point on the sofa.

You’ve got to love Her Madge — this week she declined accepting an award from the Oldie magazine, because she doesn’t think she qualifies.

Organisers had hoped to bestow the honour on the monarch on Tuesday, but instead received a letter from Buckingham Palace which read: “Her Majesty believes you are as old as you feel, as such The Queen does not believe she meets the relevant criteria to be able to accept and hopes you will find a more worthy recipient.”

Unfortunately, her doctor had other ideas and immediately afterwards ordered her to rest for a few days, meaning she missed a trip to Northern Ireland.

“Her Majesty is in good spirits and is disappointed that she will no longer be able to visit Northern Ireland, where she had been due to undertake a series of engagements,” the palace said in a statement on Wednesday.

It later emerged she had spent the night in hospital for “preliminary investigations” before returning to Windsor Castle in “good spirits” to rest.

It comes on the back of the Queen being told to give up her daily martini, which seems a tad harsh at 95, plus beginning to use a walking stick in public. Let’s hope she’s back on her feet soon.

But really, is it any wonder she’s a bit tired? She’s still on the go 30 years after the rest of us retire. Thirty years!

This month the Queen has attended multiple events, from opening parliament in Scotland and Wales to launching the Commonwealth Games baton relay, going to a British Legion centenary service in Westminster Abbey and on Tuesday hosting a reception for billionaire business leaders at Windsor. Guests included US climate envoy John Kerry, who she told she’d “seen on the telly doing William’s Earthshot Prize thing”.

That’s more activity than I have done in a year – just the thought of it is exhausting. If I had to attend one black tie function, the sheer effort of having to shower, do my hair and fish out footwear would finish me off.

Post-pandemic, it seems the most monumental effort to do anything that involves looking smart and making smarter comments. And I’m not in my nineties, even though I act like it.

Surely all HRH really wants to do is loll about in her monogrammed dressing gown and slippers and watch Coronation Street with a corgi on her lap, not stuff herself into a co-ordinating dress and coat combo and make small talk. Or is that just me?

Still, she is living proof the more you use your brain, the longer you keep your wits. This nonagenarian has no need for Sudoku, she discusses Alan Turing with Bill Gates.

In fact, VIPs are more likely to fluff it than the Queen – when George W. Bush once mistakenly stated the Queen had visited the White House in 1776 rather than 1976 (I know she has reigned for a record-breaking time, but that’s ridiculous), he received a withering look in response.

“She gave me a look only a mother could give a child,” he said.

Well she is called Ma’am.

Originally published as Kerry Parnell: It’s not surprising Queen Elizabeth II needs a rest