From the Olive Press editor Jon Clarke

THE harrowing photograph of Prince William arriving at Balmoral yesterday night informed all of it.

We didn’t want any phrases to go along with the snap of the longer term king driving his uncles Andrew and Edward into the royal Scottish residence.

Their grim faces informed all of it.

It was at that time that we on the Olive Press and, little question 1000’s of expats round Spain, knew that Britain’s longest-serving monarch was lifeless.

The precise announcement got here round an hour later, at precisely 19.40 final evening, Spanish time.

Whereas we aren’t any tub-thumping royalist paper, it nonetheless left all of the workers engaged on the newsdesk noticeably shaken. Even our Spanish ones.

Fairly merely, to echo the phrases of one in every of our readers, she was ‘an icon of our time’, a survivor, who confirmed nice empathy and humour all through her life.

Not solely did she reside by way of one world struggle (and a World Cup win), she had at least 15 Prime Ministers serving below her.

Because the latest TV drama, the Crown, so clearly confirmed, her life was something however a mattress of roses and she or he was continuously lonely and coping with private tragedy.

Other than the affairs of her husband and the controversial divorce of Charles, she needed to cope with the latest drama surrounding Prince Andrew and her grandson Prince Harry’s very public fallout with the royal household.

However the occasions that adopted the dying of Princess Diana had been among the most chaotic within the historical past of the British Isles.

Briefly, it was bedlam, and with blanket protection for months, a lot of it essential of the Queen, it virtually introduced an finish to her reign.

However she one way or the other weathered the storm and, on the final minute, did sufficient to maintain the religion of her loyal topics.

Heaven solely is aware of how Charles will comply with this.

Relaxation in Peace, Ma’am. Your expats salute you!