The Queen's Golden Jubilee tour of Britain begins today and Jennie Bond will be with her. The BBC's Royal Correspondent talks to Women's Editor Christen Pears about her job.

SO what are the Royal Family really like?' It's the question Jennie Bond is asked most frequently and, being rather curious myself, I put it to her just two minutes into our interview. The mobile phone line crackles but I'm sure I hear her sigh as she launches into what now must be a stock reply.

"I don't know them that well," she says. "I get a lot less access than people think. It's usually just a couple of minutes at a reception if I'm lucky. It's not like other correspondents who can pick up the phone and ask a Cabinet minister out to lunch to talk about things. Everything is very carefully managed."

Whether we castigate or revere them, most of us are fascinated by the royals, and Jennie comes closer to them than we ever will. She has been the BBC's Royal Correspondent for 12 years - an ice-cool blonde who has reported calmly and authoritatively on some of the biggest royal stories this century. She covered the divorce of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the deaths of Princess Diana and the Queen Mother. Now she is travelling the length and breadth of the country to report on the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Her schedule is hectic and I'm lucky to grab a few minutes with her before she heads off to the West Country for the start of the tour.

"It's going to be interesting to see the reaction she gets in each part of the country. I think it's going to be fairly positive, despite the death of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, and we'll be reporting from every region."

"Of course people are sad but I think it's made them more determined to enjoy the jubilee. I know it wouldn't have been the Queen Mother's wish that her death, or Princess Margaret's, put any sort of dampener on the celebrations.

"The Queen Mother was very spirited. She really wanted to see the Golden Jubilee; it was one of her personal targets. It's very sad that she didn't make it but the last thing she would have wanted is for it to spoil things." And she's certain that the Queen, who puts duty above all else, will make the most of the occasion. She describes her as "easy to get along with and surprisingly funny", although she does admit she can be aloof.

"She believes that, as Queen, she must remain apart from the rest of us, and even those in her inner circle keep a respectful distance."

Jennie's book, Elizabeth: Fifty Glorious Years, is published on May 7. Drawing on her extensive knowledge, she examines the Queen's reign, putting it into the context of the changes that have taken place both in Britain and the Commonwealth over the last five decades.

On a more personal note, her autobiographical work, Reporting Royalty, is published in paperback on May 20. In it, she takes the reader behind the scenes of a job she loves, but which she refers to as her "choke chain".

She writes about her intimate chats with Princess Diana at Kensington Palace and tea with Prince Charles at Highgrove, the challenge and thrill of live television reporting. But she also describes how difficult she finds it to spend time with her husband and 12-year-old daughter and a lifestyle that is "erratic, unpredictable."

When Princess Diana died, Jennie was at the family's holiday home in Devon. She took a taxi all the way to London in the early hours of the morning, leaving her daughter fast asleep in bed.

"Emma found my sudden disappearance very unsettling. She, too, was upset by the Princess's death and confused by her mother's absence. My guilt was overpowering," she says.

Like millions of people around the world, Jennie was left reeling by the death of Diana. During her years as Royal Correspondent, she had begun to know the princess fairly well.

"I'm not going to pretend I was her friend but I was allowed to get a bit closer than with other members of the Royal Family," she explains. "She was charming, she was fresh, she was good fun to be with. She was very welcoming, very articulate but she did play games with the press. She could be shrewd and she was clever in lots of ways and yes, I think she did manipulate the press. But we were using her in some way too."

Jennie wrote to Diana, asking for a meeting and was invited to Kensington Palace. She arrived "unsure whether I should behave like a girlfriend who'd come round for a gossip or a journalist on the prowl for a scoop. I tried to strike a middle path."

The Princess opened up to Jennie, answering her questions frankly. She admitted throwing herself down the stairs while she was pregnant with Prince William and talked of her love for Prince Charles and her respect for the Queen.

But just a few days after their first meeting, Jennie found herself snubbed as she waited to speak to the Princess following a visit to a children's hospital in Moscow.

"The Princess put on her most regal face, drew herself up to her full, impressive height and marched straight past me without so much as a backward glance.

"I let the mike fall limply to my side. So much, I thought, for this new, frank relationship with Diana."

Jennie Bond will be guest speaker at the Macmillan Golden Jubilee Luncheon at Hardwick Hall, Sedgefield, on May 3. Tickets cost £30. Call 0191-378 1188 for information