The Queen Mother is still working hard at 101

At 101 the Queen Mother would be forgiven for retiring but instead she carried out even more official engagements last year. The most senior royal appeared at 51 events in 2001 - six more than the previous year. Unlike her mother, the Queen lightened her workload quite considerably. She made only 15 overseas trips compared with 113 in the previous year. Tim O'Donovan, who carried out the survey for The Times, said the Queen reduced her engagements in Britain from 418 in 2000 to 392 last year. But she had only two days - Christmas Day and Easter Day - when she did not work on official business. Princess Anne was the most hard-working royal with 655 engagements in her diary. Her brother, the Prince of Wales, carried out 455 in Britain and 98 abroad.