LETTER: Need for the monarchy to modernise

Sir: The Queen has pulled it off. At the end of an amazing week the country seems to have calmed down. But it has been a close thing - mature women, outside the palace, said things like "I wouldn't have come here for any of the others" (Letters, 4 September). They had the House of Windsor on the run.

True, it has suited the media, particularly the tabloids, to exaggerate the divisions between the people and the Royal Family but there was a moment last week when the royals seemed to have lost it. If a thriving monarchy is to emerge now, the people power of the last few days must be harnessed to ensure disreputable journalism does not sour Prince William.

It is he who, as the very image of his mother in this visual age, is in the unique position to ensure that her spirit lives on in his family and the country.

HOWARD WATSON

Chepstow