In 1939, the photographer Cecil Beaton received a telephone call that he at first thought was a prank. "Mr Cecil Beaton?" the caller asked. "We’d like you to come and photograph the Queen [Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother ] tomorrow morning." Cecil put the phone down without saying anything. But it rang again, and this time the caller was more insistent. "Cecil realises that this is actually a summons to Buckingham Palace to photograph Queen Elizabeth," the photography historian and contributing Vogue editor Robin Muir tells HELLO!. "And so he does."

The next day, the photographer goes to the Palace, where he has been given an hour with the Queen. "That hour turns into virtually the whole day," Robin continues. "Cecil runs out of film twice. The Queen is absolutely entranced. They c

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