Mr Quinn, the author of Gilded Youth: An Intimate History of Growing Up in the Royal Family, has an in-depth knowledge of the Windsors based on research and first-person interviews.
With two senior members of the Royal Family on medical leave, Quinn believes the public is thinking about Anne stepping in to help while King Charles and Kate, the Princess of Wales remain off duty.
He added: “I think Princess Anne will be very much in the back of people’s minds in the Royal Family at the moment, she is always seen as a safe pair of hands and good in a crisis.
“I think she combines her mother’s sense of duty with her father, Prince Phillip’s, toughness.”
Anne has been picking up the slack, while Charles undergoes cancer treatment and Princess Kate recovers from abdominal surgery, but “she will resist being pulled into the limelight,” said Mr Quinn.
The royal expert believes Anne will continue to carry her weight, and then some, “but she is not going to become a central figure who remains in the spotlight.”
He says: “Given her no-nonsense attitude, it’s a great pity that she is so reluctant to be a more prominent figure.”
