Queen reminisces on 'fun' times with late Dame Maggie Smith at Commonwealth Essay Competition event

Dame Maggie Smith died in September aged 89, at the time, the King and Queen released a written tribute praising the late actress for her impressive career and talent

The Queen has reminisced on sharing good times with acting royalty Dame Maggie Smith, calling her "a legend" who she always had "such fun" with.

Queen Camilla was speaking to actor Toby Stephens of her sadness about his mother's death at a Buckingham Palace reception for the The Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition. During the exchange, she said she was “so sorry” to learn of the actress’ death in September.

In a warm exchange as the Queen met with the performers who were due to read winning essays at the event, she told him “we had such fun with her”. Stephens replied: “Well, vice versa.”

Dame Maggie Smith died in September aged 89. At the time, the King and Queen released a written tribute saying: "As the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through both off and on the stage."

The actor was among the four famous faces who read excerpts of stories from the winners and runners up of the essay prize, the longest-running competition of its kind in the world. The Queen told young authors they "make me proud to be a member of the Commonwealth" and "fill me with hope for its future".

One of the stories was read by Clive Myrie, who feared he would be late to the engagement while doing his BBC day job, and was greeted cheerfully by the Queen with the words: “You’ve managed to extract yourself?"

"I made it clear I had an appointment with Your Majesty,” he joked. The remaining two extracts were read by Tanya Reynolds and Richard Ayoade, both of whom spoke to the Queen about the talent of the young writers and how moved they had been by reading their stories.

The Queen also met the young winners and runners up of the prize: 15-year-old Evangeline Khoo, Senior Winner, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 13-year-old Erynn Liew, Junior Winner, from Puchong, Malaysia; 16-year-old Cristabelle Yeo, Senior Runner-up, from Singapore; and 13-year-old Victor Austin Kiyaga, Junior Runner-up from Mukono, Uganda. She congratulated the teenage writers and their parents, praising their “brilliant, absolutely brilliant” work.

“It’s lovely to see all this talent,” she told them, asking questions about their schools and when they started writing stories. Victor, who is the second Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition winner from his Ugandan school, used the moment to invite the King and Queen to his country. The Queen said she would love to come and would “tell my husband”.

Hearing that Christabelle was from Singapore, she said she had “whizzed through” the country on her way to and fro the recent Royal visit to Australia and Samoa, adding that it was a “very nice place to stop”. The event was compered by Gyles Brandreth, a long-term supporter of the Queen’s literacy campaigning, with guests including Booker Prize winner Ben Okri, author Francesca Simon, former Spice Girl Geri Horner, and bestselling historical novelist Philippa Gregory who told the Queen she was “so glad you are feeling better” after her chest infection.

The event finished with a performance from the Ngāti Rānana London Māori Club choir. Guests were invited to see books, manuscripts and tiny dolls house books from the Royal Collection, including the Queen Mother’s copy of PL Travers’ Mary Poppins, published in 1934.

In a speech, the Queen told guests “it is a huge pleasure to welcome you to Buckingham Palace today” and celebrated the “record-breaking year” of 35,000 entries from 54 Commonwealth countries. “Pamela Travers (or PL Travers, as it says on the cover of this book) once said something very astute about writing that I remembered when I read your brilliant entries,” she told finalists. “She said, ‘A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader’.

“I think that by this she meant that a really good piece of writing stirs up the reader and, by some strange magic, makes the reader part of the story. This is definitely true of our wonderful finalists: thanks to your talents, your readers are taken on amazing journeys with you across the Commonwealth, from Gambia to Grenada, from Bangladesh to Botswana, from Malta to Malaysia.

"You make us part of your story; you invite us to share your concerns and your passions; and you eloquently express the power of ‘Our Common Wealth’. I am full of admiration for you all. You make me proud to be a member of the Commonwealth and you fill me with hope for its future.

"Now, if Mary Poppins were here, I wonder if she would be telling me to hurry up with a brisk 'Spit Spot' so that we can get on to the prize giving. I will therefore end by saying that there is just one word to describe you all.. You are utterly supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"