 She has made arrangements enabling her then to step down from managing it and for the visitor attraction to be franchised out to an external management company.She has also arranged for a series of books and titles to be brought out based on the Alnwick Castle archive covering aspects of the life and history of the Percy family estate.On 12 May 2009, having been recommended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, she was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland by Queen Elizabeth II.