UK's Queen Elizabeth has 2,000 kids to birthday tea

LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 80th birthday with a Mad Hatter's Tea Party on Sunday for 2,000 wide-eyed children who rubbed shoulders with Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

The feisty octogenarian turned fairy godmother to treat the kids to a picnic tea and then a roustabout pantomime about the day her handbag was stolen.

After turning her back garden into a fantasyland full of storybook characters, she took to the stage at the end of the knockabout farce to declare ''I am delighted to have my handbag back. I do like happy endings.'' ''British children's literature has been for many years an extraordinary success story,'' she told the crowd who sang Happy Birthday to her.

As children's authors mingled with the guests, the biggest reception was given to JK Rowling, mobbed by children desperate for an autograph from the author of the Harry Potter wizard sagas.

''I think it is a wonderful idea to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday by celebrating children's literature. I really do think it is a golden age at the moment,'' she told reporters at the most surreal garden party ever staged at the palace.

The neatly trimmed lawns were transformed into a fairyland with Toad of Toad Hall mingling with Thomas The Tank Engine and Wallace and Gromit to entertain children who guzzled hampers provided by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

Unlike Alice in Wonderland's disgruntled Queen of Hearts who cried ''Off With Their Heads,'' Queen Elizabeth delighted in the fun.

Even her corgi dogs were in mortal danger when Cruella de Vil grew tired of chasing the 101 Dalmatians and threatened to skin the Queen's beloved canines for her next coat.

The stars of the Harry Potter films joined in the hunt for the Queen's handbag while Captain Hook fought a duel with Peter Pan and Robin Hood.

The show was inspired by Roald Dahl's classic ''The BFG'' (The Big Friendly Giant) with his granddaughter, Sophie Dahl, taking to the stage to play herself.

REUTERS SK BST0558