Among the gifts from the RoyalFamily and UK PM David Cameron to US President Barack Obama in 2011 were a china tea set, an eagle tapestry and a dog toy, the US state department has revealed.
The death of Princess Diana in 1997 was even an occasion where the scale and intensity of public grief not only caught UK officials by surprise - but threatened to turn Britons against the RoyalFamily for their perceived remoteness.
The report from the WRVS, formerly the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, describes how "fragmented" family life in the UK can leave older people stranded with little contact from their own children.