I don't want to jeopardize my relationship with royalty by saying too much.
When it comes to personal communication, words are all we've got. It is the simple use of language that makes us human beings.
What happened between the sheets on the night of the royal wedding I cannot tell you. I was not there.
People find communication in families difficult - games can help with that.
And the purpose of small talk is not to be controversial, clever or even interesting. It's simply to fill the silent void with a small gesture of common humanity. It's a spoken smile, a verbal handshake.
Prince Philip had formally 'retired' in the summer of 2017, a couple of months after his 96th birthday, because the Queen encouraged him to do so. She wanted to stop him 'pushing himself all the time'. She had become anxious about him.
If you are getting married it's about the person you are marrying, it's about the relationship. For me it's not about the party.
I think the Duke of Edinburgh would have been pleasantly surprised by the reaction to his death.
The Queen is frequently on her own, walking the dogs, riding her horses, playing patience, completing a jigsaw, sorting her photograph albums, watching television, phoning friends, doing the Telegraph crossword. Is she neglected? Is she suffering? Or does she simply understand her man?
During the summer of 2000, in the run-up to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's 100th birthday, I asked the Duke of Edinburgh if he was hoping to reach 100. 'Good God, no,' he spluttered, 'I can't imagine anything worse. What a ghastly idea.'