Book info

• Title A Royal Duty
• Author Paul Burrell
• Year 2000
• Genre Biography

In A Royal Duty, Paul Burrell reveals new truths about Princess Diana - and presents for the first time as faithful an account of her thoughts as we can ever hope to read. He was the favourite footman who formed a unique relationship with the Queen. He was the butler who the Princess of Wales called 'my rock' and 'the only man I can trust'. He was accused of theft, then acquitted following the historic intervention of the monarch. He was the Princess' most intimate confidante - and is the only person able to separate the myth from the truth of the Diana years.

Thoughts

I don’t really know why I read this. It was on the bookshelf of a family member, and I was sitting near it, so I opened it and began to read. The story of Paul Burrell and his relationship with the Royal Family begins with his early years and how he got a job at Buckingham Palace. The information about dragging round Corgis every single day, twice a day, to how he became a butler and what that entails was absolutely fascinating.

I was less interested in the details about his relationship with Princess Diana herself. Some things should be sacred, and really all it did was show just how naive Burrell was through that time. It goes on to document the years after Diana’s death, where he was ostracised by the Royals and arrested for stealing her belongings.

I hadn’t really paid the Royals much attention, so Princess Diana was never really in my vision until she died. The portrait of her is interesting, and goes some way to explain the public’s outpouring of grief for her.

The writing is simple, clear and seemingly, honest. Conversations, anecdotes and memorable incidents guide the narrative, and I’ll never get the image of the Queen sitting in her study in slippers and a crown out of my head.

Rating: 2 / 5