Will we ever know the contents of the Queen’s private papers? Princess Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton fears her personal letters and diaries will be ‘burnt’ before official biography – as King entrusts loyal palace aid ‘Tall Paul’ with her secrets
Princess Diana’s biographer fears the late queen’s private letters could be burned by royal aides before a historian can view her papers to write her official biography.
More than a year after Her Majesty’s death, no announcement has been made about which historian will be tasked with writing the official story of her life.
Earlier this year it emerged that King Charles had entrusted loyal Palace aide Paul Whybrew with the task of sorting through the Queen’s private papers before they were transferred to the royal archives in Windsor.
But Andrew Morton, the author of the revelation-filled 1992 work Diana: Her True Story, expressed fears that the Queen’s papers will be filetted to remove any material the royal family does not want made public.
Speaking to the Scandal Mongers podcast, he said he is “tremendously” concerned that aides are “burning the letters” and added that “a lot” could be “disguised” and “camouflaged.”
Princess Diana’s biographer fears the late queen’s private letters could be burned by royal aides before a historian can view her papers to write her official biography. More than a year after Her Majesty’s death, no announcement has been made about which historian will be tasked with writing the official story of her life
Earlier this year it emerged that King Charles had entrusted loyal Palace aide Paul Whybrew with the task of sorting through the Queen’s private papers before they were transferred to the royal archives in Windsor. Above: Whybrew with the Queen in the sketch filmed with James Bond star Daniel Craig in 2012
He cited how Princess Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, and her sister Sarah burned much of her correspondence after her death in a car crash in 1997.
Mr Morton told fellow historians Andrew Lownie and Phil Craig last week: ‘We have two major biographies to be commissioned soon. One about Prince Philip and one about Her Majesty the Queen.
‘Who will be chosen? Do not know. Who browses the archives? Apparently it’s the Queen’s lackey, Paul Whybrew, Tall Paul.
‘It really worries me: are they going to burn the letters like Princess Margaret did with the Queen Mother’s correspondence?
“Just like the Spencer family. Like Sarah McCorquodale and Frances Shand Kydd did with Diana’s correspondence. They even burned the inkjotters she had.”
Andrew Morton is the author of the epiphany-filled 1992 work Diana: Her True Story
He also questioned whether the royal family would be allowed to control access to the Queen’s papers.
“Should it be left to the family? Of course they would claim that it is “our mother” and that it is our property, so the letters are under her copyright. It’s a pretty seductive argument,” he said.
“They wear different hats. They wear the privacy hat when it comes to shielding correspondence and memos and so on, and they wear the public hat when it comes to costs.”
He added: ‘The sooner the biography of the Queen is made the better, because the people who were her friends are all dying. It’s that simple.
Academics previously described the decision to appoint ‘Tall Paul’ Whybrew to search the Queen’s papers as ‘deeply worrying’.
Whybrew is not a trained historian or archivist, but has been appointed to search the Queen’s private papers and letters
They feared that vital historical documents could be suppressed or destroyed without the public’s knowledge.
A high-profile historian who asked not to be named told the Mail on Sunday that the decision was a “clear break” with previous practice.
“By doing it this way (with an assistant going over the documents) you hinder the biographer and the biography and decide that your judgment is more important than the judgment of a historian,” they said last month.
Mr Lownie, himself a royal biographer, added his voice to the criticism.
He said in September: ‘The royal family has a history of destroying documents and there are concerns this could happen again.
‘It is important that an official biographer for both her and Prince Philip is announced quickly, with unfettered access to their papers, and that any censorship is done with a light touch.’
He recently failed to find out whether Scotland Yard ever investigated Virginia Giuffre’s allegations against Prince Andrew.
The writer had asked through the Freedom of Information Act whether police had investigated her claims that she had been trafficked to Britain and, if not, who had authorized the investigation to be dropped.
The Met responded: ‘We cannot confirm or deny whether any information is being held in relation to any allegations made by this individual.’
Morton’s 1992 book revealed Diana’s deep unhappiness in her marriage to King Charles, who was then the Prince of Wales.
The public did not know at the time that the book was based on recorded memories that Diana had recorded for him.
The princess described cutting herself with a pen knife, throwing herself down the stairs when she was pregnant with Prince William and vomiting four times a day when bulimia took hold.
Andrew Morton’s 1992 biography of Princess Diana (left) was written in close collaboration with the royal family. It told the ‘true’ story of Diana’s marriage to the then Prince Charles. Right: Morton
The biographer capitalized on his best-selling work by releasing Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words just months after her death in 1997.
The book contained the transcripts of their conversations, officially citing her as the main source.
This was followed by Diana: In Pursuit of Love in 2004, which detailed her affairs with soldier James Hewitt, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan and property developer Christopher Walley, among others.
Last year, a 25th anniversary edition of his first book about Diana was published with exclusive new material that was excluded from the first version.