Miriam Murray spent seven years as a nanny to European royalty in Madrid. She tells Women's Editor Lindsay Jennings about children's parties at the Spanish royal palace, meeting legendary actress Grace Kelly and how her young charges became a second family to her.

MOST people have treasured photographs of their loved ones dotted on mantelpieces and shelves around their homes. But in Miriam Murray's case, the young faces which take pride of place on her sideboard also happen to be members of the European royal family.

Two framed photographs of her grown-up charges, Myrta and Sonia, looking resplendent on their respective wedding days, sit alongside snaps taken when they were younger, frolicking in swimming pools or with an array of family pets. Then there are pictures of Myrta and Sonia's children, beaming out of family photographs next to portraits of Miriam's own off-spring.

"They are such a lovely family," she says fondly, as she points out who's who among the frames. It is clear that being nanny to Myrta and Sonia, the daughters of Princess Teresa of Bavaria, was no ordinary job.

Miriam, originally from Moulton, near Darlington, had been nannying for a family in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, when her sister, Renee, heard of another vacancy abroad.

Says Miriam: "The children's grandmother (Marisol Mesia-Lesseps y Fitz James Stuart) had had an English nanny and she thought there was no-one like the English for discipline and manners so she wrote to her nanny, who happened to live in Darlington, and asked her if she knew of anyone."

Miriam soon found herself working for Princess Teresa, who had numerous royal cousins abroad and whose father was related to Queen Victoria. The princess, known as Tessa to family and friends, and her family lived in an apartment in Madrid. Sonia was only three weeks old when Miriam began working in the early 1970s and Myrta was aged three-and-a-half.

"They came to collect me from the airport and took me to the apartment which was beautiful," recalls Miriam.

"I can remember it was very hot at the time, and seeing so many maids. I didn't speak any Spanish but Tessa was a lovely lady and she was the kind of person who would always put you at your ease."

Miriam was in sole charge of the two youngsters from the moment they woke to lights off at night. But thankfully, the maids carried out all the housework.

"My role changed as time went on," she says. "Breakfast would be about 8 to 8.30am, depending on when the baby had been fed. Then in the summer we would go to the grandmother's house which had a lovely big garden and swimming pool. Later on they would have a sleep, then we would all have lunch."

Not long after her arrival, the family and servants moved to the grandmother's house at Monte Carlo for six weeks, where royal protocol was more evident.

"There would be a gong for dinner and you knew you had so long to come down," she says. "Then we would all gather in the salon, like a big sitting room, and have a drink before going into the dining room. The most important person would always go into the dining room first so I was nearly always the last in the line - it was just a part of their protocol."

She laughs at the last remark and says that most of the time she enjoyed eating relaxed meals with the family, the only staff member to do so apart from Tessa's former governess. When the children grew older, she would take them to school and would spend her free time having a coffee with friends or shopping. She sometimes gave English lessons to a visiting Count and his wife and then she and the children would enjoy lunch together.

"Myrta was a most lovely girl and I suppose a little spoilt when she was younger because she was so beautiful," she admits. "Everyone made a big thing of her because, particularly among the Spanish, she was very, very pretty with big blue eyes and blonde hair. Sonia was more Spanish looking but just as lovely and was more outgoing than Myrta."

It was during a stay at Monte Carlo that Miriam met screen icon Grace Kelly, her husband Prince Rainier and daughter Caroline after one of the classical concerts the family used to attend at the palace. "She was very, very glamorous but she just seemed ordinary," she says of the legend.

She also recalls attending one particular party at the King and Queen of Spain's palace. "There were lots of important people there, including the King and Queen of Greece and Sophia Loren, and everyone had on their expensive clothes," she says. "I only had a black skirt and a white top but the next day the Marquez (Tessa's husband) and Prince Juan Carlos passed comment on how nice I had looked. It just shows how nice they could be."

One of the highlights of the year was at Christmas. The tree would be dressed when the children were in bed on Christmas Eve and they looked forward to the arrival of the Kings bringing gifts.

"The children always put their shoes out rather than Christmas stockings and if they were naughty, they would get coal," recalls Miriam. "I wouldn't say the children were spoilt with their presents. The Spanish people are very into their families and were not really materialistic.

"The family was also very strict on manners and my two little ones had to know who to curtsey to. I used to give them a little kick behind when the right person came along."

The "right person" would often be one of their royal hosts, such as Prince Juan Carlos and his wife Sophia, now the king and queen of Spain, at the royal palace, or Queen Fredericka of Greece - who was a stickler for royal protocol.

"If Queen Fredericka of Greece was there, she was so royal if you didn't curtsey, she would ask you to," laughs Miriam.

There were also many children's parties at the palace. "They were very generous and the King and Queen were charming," she says. "There would often be a special tea afterwards for the nannies and sometimes you were given little gifts."

One of her favourite gifts from the family is a gold charm bracelet which came with a disc with Myrta and Sonia's names on it. Since then, she has added the names of her own children and her wedding day.

Miriam's nannying days came to an end when she met her husband-to-be, Alan, a butcher, while on a visit home. Leaving the household and her two special little girls was one of the hardest decisions she has ever had to make.

"It was terrible. I'd have turned around and gone straight back in the first six months," she admits, before adding with a grin: "They used to write me letters telling me how much they missed me and how they hated the next one."

The two girls came to stay with Miriam and her new husband at their modest home in Barton, near Darlington, and when the couple had three children of their own - Simon, Sonia (named after one of her charges) and John - Tessa and her two girls became the children's godparents. Miriam visits the family every year and they swap letters and phone calls on birthdays and Christmas Day.

"They make me so welcome when I go to see them, it's just like going back home," she says.

Such is their friendship, that Myrta's daughter, Cristina, and Sonia's daughter, Victoria, both aged seven, are going to be bridesmaids for Miriam's daughter when she marries Christopher Scarr at Middleton Tyas Parish Church, near Darlington, on July 2 next year.

Naturally, Miriam is looking forward to seeing the family again.

"It was a job where you gave a lot and you got a lot back," she says. "I love them all. They're like a second family to me."