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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud, where each week we choose some of our favourite pieces from the magazine and ask their writers to read them aloud.

I'm Patrick Gibbons on this week's podcast. As the King prepares to head to America, Robert Harbin looks ahead to what would have been Elizabeth II's centenary.

Melissa Kite reports from the trucker protests in Ireland.

Julian Glover mourns the demise of the railway restaurant car.

And finally, do you love it or hate it?

Sarah Carlson provides her notes on Marmite.

Up first, Robert Harbin.

Elizabeth II was never particularly enthusiastic about birthdays. They were a good excuse for a parade,

or an honours list, but not a patch on a major wedding anniversary, let alone a Jubilee. Those were a

celebration of true dedication, not of mere longevity. Even so, were she still with us, the late Queen would have

acknowledged that her centenary on Tuesday is a big deal. It would also have created a delightful

conundrum for the Buckingham Palace Anniversary Office, the department that sends out 100th

birthday congratulations from the sovereign.

At the start of her reign, she was sending 385 of those each year across all her realms by telegram.

By the end, it was over 16,000 by card.

When her own mother reached 100 in the summer of 2000,

the celebrations were tinged with disappointment.

Having planned live coverage of the Queen Mother's centenary pageant,

...