Queen Elizabeth has always had a soft spot for South Africa. And South African Andrew Unsworth has always had a soft spot for The Queen. Now, as she welcomes her 90s, he's finally figured out why I sang God Save the Queen at primary school in Maseru in what was then Basutoland. When I was about six I had my tonsils removed at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in the same very little city.My first scrapbooks included pictures of the young queen and her family, mainly because they were cannibalised from my (English) mother's limited supply of magazines. It's what I had, although there were also lots of cars and plants and butchered Christmas cards.As soon as I could write I sent her a letter asking for one of those black bearskin hats her Grenadier guards wear. I had a polite note back from a lady in waiting, but no hat. I had to settle for a black Russian ushanka many years later.Elizabeth became Queen six months before I was born and seems to have been part of my life ever since, but then most people alive now have known no other monarch on the British throne. Now 90, she's the only monarch who gets called, simply, The Queen.mini_story_image_vleft1In 1953 she was crowned Queen of the self-governing Union of South Africa, with proteas among the flowers embroidered into her coronation dress and a very large rock from Cullinan in her crown.She was dropped as Queen when this country became a republic in 1961 and embarked on a line of mostly forgettable figurehead presidents. That makes her the last monarch to rule over the whole of South Africa - a nice quiz question.In 1947 Princess Elizabeth had accompanied her parents, George VI and Queen Elizabeth, on a long tour of Southern Africa - partly for his health, partly to cool off or test her enthusiasm for Prince Philip, and partly as an effort by the Smuts government to halt the rise of Nationalism.It was her first trip abroad, and the longest "holiday" stay she would ever have in a foreign country, apart from Malta where she later lived as a naval wife. She and her sister Margaret rode horses on the beach in East London and at train stops, she celebrated her 21st birthday in Cape Town with a ball in the city hall.The climax of the trip was her oft-quoted birthday broadcast of commitment to serve, made from Cape Town: "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."Her experiences in Southern Africa influenced her long attitude of non-racialism in a very diverse commonwealth of nations.As her 1997 biographer Ben Pimlott wrote: "Elizabeth's first tour, which was also one of her longest, profoundly affected her outlook, helping to establish a Commonwealth interest and loyalty that became a constant theme of her reign."She could not come back here for many decades but was quick to make a state visit in 1995, after South Africa became a democracy. She and Nelson Mandela became close friends, and he was one of the only people to ignore protocol and just call her Elizabeth.block_quotes_start Elizabeth became Queen six months before I was born and seems to have been part of my life ever since block_quotes_endIn a Buckingham palace exhibition of gifts she had been given over the years, I was proud to see a humble headscarf from him among the solid gold models of desert oases from the middle east: the man had style.Her opinions are always unknown but one can only guess that she has a soft spot for South Africa. And that's what makes her so fascinating a person: she is probably the most famous but least-known woman on earth.The 19th-century journalist Walter Bagehot famously advised the British monarchy that "Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic."story_article_right1Much of that magic is gone, but in an age of show and tell all, the queen has managed to stay mysterious, with only snippets of information about her opinions, likes and dislikes. They are often banal and trivial, but then Elizabeth is no cultural or intellectual giant. She is very ordinary, but different. Just maybe there is not that much to know. Her loves are horses, hunting, dogs and the countryside. She likes simple food, drinks gin and Dubonnet, reads PD James, does jigsaw puzzles, and hates facial hair on men. There's lots of that sort of thing.The British have the enviable luxury of a head of state they can completely take for granted, even ignore, while they remove politicians and governments at will. It's a brilliant system, if you have it.Inevitably, our paths have crossed a few times, even if she does not know it. I once saw her leaving the National Theatre in London and realised how tiny she is. As a tourist I have trooped through the state rooms of Buckingham Palace, each one a stage set de luxe, Windsor Castle, and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.I have dined on her (decommissioned) yacht Britannia, which she last sailed into Cape Town, and snooped around her private residence at Sandringham. Like her, I'd opt for Windsor as the best pile.As a journalist I attended the Queen Mother's state funeral in Westminster Abbey in 2002, seated in a blind corner somewhere behind the royals. I bought a black tie for that, and keep it for funerals.I was in the press stand outside Buckingham Palace for her Golden Jubilee in 2002, and saw her in that golden state coach that out-blings any oil oligarch's golden car. The fireworks display, which by some miracle did not burn the palace down, was the best I've ever seen.Yes, HM has been around all my life, and it took a long time for me to realise why I had such a soft spot for the old dear: she reminds me of my mum. The same generation, the same permed hair, the same utter Englishness. Maybe it's as simple as that: she could be anybody's mum or grandmother. But then, is that the magic?..