I’m really struggling to decide what to write here tonight. What do you say on the eve of the funeral of one’s head of state – a person who has been a part of the national narrative for longer than most people can remember? Do you write something about them? If so, what? How could anyone summarise the mixed emotions you feel towards a person who was, at one and the same time, a maternal figure of stability for the entire nation and an undemocratic anachronism binding us to a bloody imperial past? Or do you choose to write about something completely different? If so, you risk coming across as disrespectful. You could opt not to write anything at all; but then you would feel the need to write something tomorrow, on the day of the funeral, and repeat the whole dilemma. Thus I’ll just say that I hope everyone is safe and well tonight. Whatever your stance on the monarchy, tomorrow will probably be a tough day – funerals usually are. We all grew up with the queen simply ‘there’; now that she isn’t, we must take it in our stride.