BOOKS
Diana's `Rock' strikes back
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What Paul Burrell does deliver is exactly what a butler is most qualified to tell — the minutiae of life with the royal family.
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PAUL BURRELL, author of A Royal Duty, spent 21 years serving the British Royal Family, initially the Queen, then Prince Charles and finally as faithful butler to Diana, Princess of Wales, until her death in 1997.
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Burrell, who acted as cook, chauffeur and confidante, had a unique insight into the life of the princess, who famously called him "My Rock".
In A Royal Duty, we learn that Diana predicted she would die in a car crash, which she claimed would be caused deliberately — a revelation that generated a storm of controversy in England — that she always loved Charles, that she considered and rejected moving to Australia. But we end the book none the wiser as to what was actually going on in Diana's mind during the turbulent years of her marriage, her divorce and the events leading up to her death.
What Burrell (and his ghost writer) does/do deliver is exactly what a butler is most qualified to tell — the minutiae of life with the royal family, who often treat their corgis better than their servants.
Burrell, who grew up in a coalmining town, bucked the tradition of going down the pits to earn a living. Instead he entered the imposing gates of Buckingham Palace. We share the nervousness of the 18-year-old under footman as he begins work at the Palace, roams the corridors of Windsor Castle and nervously serves dinner at Sandringham.
He learns that the servants must always walk down the sides of the corridors, so as not to wear out the carpets. If maids heard the Queen coming, they would often dart into cupboards or hide under the stairs so as not to come face-to-face with Her Majesty. Employees were not allowed to watch the royal televisions and the late Princess Margaret would check if the set was warm to find out if anyone had been indulging in illegal viewing.
But Burrell's admiration for the Queen is boundless. When she happens to see another footman taking a sly shot of gin from the royal supplies, she keeps quiet, knowing he would lose his job if she made a fuss. She never complained about poor service, bad manners or disgusting food, but if one of her beloved corgis got lost in the garden, it was a different matter.
When Burrell moved on to work for Prince Charles, he had a hard job keeping his demanding employer happy. Each time Charles returned home, it was Burrell's job to climb out onto the roof, walk along a dangerous strip of roof, in gale-force winds and driving rain, and raise his flag. Charles comes across as childish and almost incapable of doing anything for himself.
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One of his notes to Burrell read: "A letter from the Queen must have fallen by accident into the wastepaper basket beside the table in the library. Please look for it."
On another occasion, Charles, angered that Burrell had told Diana he was out (he was with Camilla Parker Bowles), hurled a book at him. "'I am the Prince of Wales,' he screamed, and stamped a foot to emphasise his authority." After such treatment, it was not surprising that when the prince and princess separated, Diana persuaded Burrell to move to London to serve her at Kensington Palace.
He was working most days from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., hardly seeing his wife (who he had met when she was a housemaid at Buckingham Palace) and their two sons. Yet Diana and he would spend hours sitting on the stairs talking and analysing the events of the day, the men in her life or her impending divorce. He admits that his relationship with the Boss, as he called her, might, to some people, seem obsessive.
Burrell would accompany her on nighttime drives, sometimes to meet prostitutes whom she had befriended or on secret visits to hospital patients. At home he would prepare her lonely dinners for one in front of the television while her sons, William and Harry, were away at boarding school, and observe her constant letter writing and the list of "good words" she kept on her desk to improve her vocabulary.
After Diana's death, Burrell was accused of stealing more than 300 items from her estate; he was arrested, briefly jailed and put on trial. Burrell was aghast that no one in the royal family, those who he had served so faithfully even at the expense of his own family, came to his defence.
Until, half way through the trial, the case collapsed when the Queen suddenly remembered Burrell had told her he was taking some of the princess's possessions into safekeeping.
Burrell was let off the hook, but he had his revenge by writing this book. What is surprising is how anyone could have thought his story could bring down the monarchy. What the butler saw and what he reveals is that the royals are flawed, yet human, and working for them is a thankless task.
A Royal Duty, Paul Burrell, p.416, £17.99
ANJALI KWATRA
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