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Butler's book goes on sale

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON OCT 27. A controversial book about the late Princess Diana by a former royal butler, Paul Burrell, went on sale today after he rejected a plea by Princes William and Harry to stop "destroying'' their mother's reputation.

Extracts from the book, A Royal Duty, serialised in the newspaper, Daily Mirror, have dominated the British media in recent days much to the embarrassment of the royal family, which fears more damaging revelations in a second book Mr. Burrell is reported to be planning. He has described the disclosures so far as the "tip of the iceberg" but commentators believe he is hyping things up to drive up offers for his next book.

His publishers, Penguin, said they had "no idea" about a second book and defended the decision to go ahead with the release of A Royal Duty, seen as yet another sordid episode in the never-ending royal soap opera. A senior Penguin executive said the serialised extracts did not reflect the true flavour of the book, which he described as "incredibly positive".

"When Princes William and Harry read the book, they'll think very differently," Tom Weldon, the managing director of Penguin General Books, told a newspaper. The extracts have concentrated on the conspiracy theory behind the Paris car crash, which killed Princess Diana and her friend, Dodi, in the summer of 1998.

In a letter, included in the book, she is quoted as saying that there was a "conspiracy" to kill her by arranging a car crash. The book also contains her private letters and notes, reflecting her "innermost thoughts".

Mr. Burrell, who has publicly denounced the royal family for not intervening to stop his aborted trial last year for alleged theft of Princess Diana's personal possessions, has denied that the book was an act of revenge or a "betrayal" of the Princess's memory.

He said he would never have written the book if he had received "just one phone call" from the royal family. He has also accused the family of "poisoning" the minds of the Princes.

"This is not my revenge, absolutely not," he told the BBC. "It would have been a very different world if the telephone had rung and the boys had said: `Oh Paul! We're sorry we couldn't help you during your trial. We just couldn't; our hands were tied. Why don't you come down to London with Maria and the boys and we'll do something'." Mr. Burrell is set to earn millions from the book.

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