The Queen, the Royal Garden Party and Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe

Jul 9 2009 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

I JUST love this picture of the Queen. Not for the eye-catching mint hue of her dress coat, nor the rather fabulous hat, but because, standing there umbrella in hand at this week’s Royal Garden Party, Her Majesty represents everything we know and love/hate about the Great British Summer.

Yes, the only thing you can predict about it is its unpredictability.

Last week spectators were sweltering on centre court at Wimbledon. This week guests at Buckingham Palace were abandoning their cucumber sandwiches and Earl Grey and running for cover as three months of rain fell in just a few hours.

We have gone from hosepipe bans to flood warnings in a matter of days and are not even halfway through July.

The problem is all this changeability plays havoc with a girl’s style.

The Queen, as one might expect, was prepared for the downpour with her practical and pretty see-through umbrella but I have lost count of the number of times I have found myself suddenly weather-inappropriate because a scorching summer morning morphed into a monsoon by lunch time.

That strappy summer dress that looked uber-chic when I left the house doesn’t look half as elegant when the hem is soaked through and I am sure I have dropped a few pounds through all the hours spent shivering because the mercury took a dive somewhere between my house and the office.

And don’t even get me started on the number of ballet pumps that I have ruined by legging it through puddles the size of ponds.

If the ever-changing weather makes it tough getting ready for work, then it makes special occasion dressing impossible.

Weddings, festivals, barbecues, garden parties… any event with an outdoor element requires military-style planning.

So you had to feel for the Harry Potter cast on Tuesday who got soaked to the skin on the red carpet at this week’s London premiere of the latest instalment in the franchise.

Pity poor Daniel Radcliffe stuck in a cinema for two hours in a wet-through wool suit. But full marks to Emma Watson’s stylist for her weather-proof up-do and choosing a vintage silk-dress which dried out in a matter of minutes – perhaps a safety pin might have prevented her knicker flash wardrobe malfunction but I digress.

If surviving British summers teaches you anything it is to always be prepared. On a weekend break to Leeds recently I took more clothes than I would for a fortnight on the Costas, hot weather outfits, warm weather outfits, cold weather outfits and all the associated footwear. I stopped just short of squeezing in a pair of wellies.

But how dull would life be if we woke up to red hot sunshine every day from June to September?

Oh dear, I think I might be suffering from delayed sunstroke…