The late and brilliant Jilly Cooper, famed for her work on books like “Rivals,” was a master of clever quips. One memorable line of hers was: “The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.”

Cooper was never one to buy into political correctness. She once remarked, “I love being wolf-whistled at. I’m from that generation. All contributions gratefully received.” Indeed, a sentiment many can appreciate.

Cooper shared a close friendship with Queen Camilla, and they bore strikingly similar personalities. It’s easy to imagine the Queen as a character straight from a Jilly Cooper novel.

With her upper-class roots, a knack for not standing on ceremony, and a penchant for hay bales and fun, Queen Camilla embodies the spirit of the woman Prince Charles chose to wed.

I often recall a hilarious moment from an official visit in 2017. The pair was in Canada, witnessing an earnest yet inadvertently funny Inuit throat-singing performance.

As the two female performers engaged in their intense vocal exchange, Camilla struggled to suppress her laughter. Charles, catching her eye, tried to mask his amusement by scratching his nose, but soon they both succumbed to a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

Needless to say, it prompted a lot of pearl-clutching in certain quarters. And doubtless there will be more of the same since it emerged that, after watching last year’s rather syrupy video of the Waleses frolicking in the wilds of Norfolk the Queen – having first expressed her relief that the Princess’s cancer treatment had been successful – then quipped that it reminded her of a ‘shampoo commercial’.

Oh dear. The snowflakes will be in meltdown. But really, why? It’s just a joke (remember those?). Besides, wasn’t she (whisper it) just saying what everyone else was secretly thinking? 

Queen Camilla cheekily remarked that Kate’s highly-stylised video (pictured) was reminiscent of a shampoo commercial  

Camilla is very good at taking the hot air out of stuffy situations without deflating anyone’s ego

That bit where the Princess trails her fingers through a field of flowers in a floaty sundress? Just like those soapy Timotei adverts from the 1980s. 

In fact, the whole thing was quite soapy generally, what with all that rolling around in the sand dunes and so on. Very Richard Curtis.

Not that it matters. But it was a funny thing to say. And quite a witty one too. And being the Queen, it wouldn’t have been said to wound, but to amuse. To put people at their ease. To lighten the mood.

I’ll give you an example: I was at the Cliveden Literary Festival the other week. I was working away in my room and, feeling peckish, decided to pop out for a sandwich.

As I was making my way down the corridor, who should I bump into but a burly gentleman with a curly wire in his ear. 

‘Would you mind just waiting here for a second, madam?’ he said politely. ‘No trouble at all, I replied,’ whereupon his ward, the Queen herself – who was leaving having just opened the Festival – turned around and waved. 

‘Oh, hello Sarah, she said, how lovely to see you. I really enjoyed your book.’

I must confess I was slightly blindsided (as was the gentleman with the wire). I’ve only encountered the Queen a few times in social settings, and that was a long time ago, before she was Queen. 

The video featured Kate and her family frolicking in the sand dunes on a Norfolk beach  

Queen Camilla, pictured with Kate at Trooping The Colour in 2022, is a master at putting people at ease  

She could very easily have ignored me, and I wouldn’t have thought any worse of her for it: she is, after all, the Queen.

Instead, she was utterly charming: warm, witty, welcoming. As she was to everyone that day. She made us all feel special, relaxed and at ease, not because it’s her job (it is also that) but because that’s just who she is.

She is very good at taking the hot air out of stuffy situations without deflating anyone’s ego. 

That’s why she makes the King, who can have a tendency sometimes to be a little maudlin (and frankly, who can blame him), so happy. She knows how to diffuse a tense situation with a dash of humour.

Like the late Jilly, she is possessed of an irrepressible joie de vivre. So what if it’s laced with a rather delicious streak of naughtiness? At the end of the day, isn’t that what life is all about?