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 is worried that the late Queen’s private letters could be burnt by royal aides before a historian is able to look at her papers to write her official biography.
More than a year on from Her Late Majesty’s death, no announcement has been made over which historian will be granted the job of 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 are transferred to the Royal archive at Windsor.
But Andrew Morton, the author of the revelation-filled 1992 work Diana: Her True Story, expressed his fears that the Queen’s papers will be filleted to remove any material that the Royal Family do not want to become public.
Speaking to the Scandal Mongers podcast, he said he is ‘enormously’ concerned that aides may be ‘burning the letters’ and added that ‘an awful lot’ could be ‘disguised’ and ‘camouflaged’.
Princess Diana ‘s biographer is worried that the late Queen’s private letters could be burnt by royal aides before a historian is able to look at her papers to write her official biography. More than a year on from Her Late Majesty’s death, no announcement has been made over which historian will be granted the job of 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 are transferred to the Royal archive at 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 burnt 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 about to be commissioned. One on Prince Philip and one on Her Majesty The Queen.
‘Who will be chosen? Don’t know. Who’s going through the archives? Well apparently it’s the Queen’s footman, Paul Whybrew, Tall Paul.
‘It does concern me enormously, are they going to be burning the letters like Princess Margaret did with the Queen Mother’s correspondence.
‘Like the Spencer family did. Like Sarah McCorquodale and Frances Shand Kydd did with Diana’s correspondence. They even burnt the ink jotters that she had.’
Andrew Morton is the author of the revelation-filled 1992 work Diana: Her True Story
He also questioned whether the Royal Family should be allowed to control access to the Queen’s papers.
‘Should it be left to the family? Obviously they would argue that it’s “our mother” and it’s our property, so the letters are her copyright. It’s a pretty seductive argument,’ he said.
‘They wear different hats. They wear the privacy hat when its about shielding correspondence and memos and so on and then they wear the public hat when its about cost.’
He added: ‘The quicker the Queen biography is commissioned the better because the people who were her friends are all dying. It’s as simple as that.
Academics previously described the decision to appoint ‘Tall Paul’ Whybrew to sort through the Queen’s papers as ‘deeply concerning’.
Whybrew is not a trained historian or archivist but has been appointed to sort through the Queen’s private papers and letters
They feared that vital historic documents could be suppressed or destroyed without public knowledge.
READ MORE: Buckingham Palace dragged into a row with historians over the fate of the late Queen’s personal letters and diaries – as the King entrusts loyal palace aid ‘Tall Pall’ with his mother’s private papers
One high-profile historian who asked not to be named told the Mail on Sunday the decision was a ‘clear break’ with previous practice.
‘By doing it this way [with an aide going through the documents] you are hobbling the biographer and the biography and you are deciding 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 have a history of destroying records and there are worries this may happen again.
‘It is important that an official biographer for both her and Prince Philip, with unfettered access to their papers, is announced soon and that any censorship is done with a light touch.’
He recently failed in a bid to find out if Scotland Yard ever investigated Virginia Giuffre’s allegations against Prince Andrew.
The writer had asked via the Freedom of Information Act if police had looked into her claims of being trafficked to the UK and, if not, who had authorised that the probe be dropped.
The Met replied: ‘We cannot confirm or deny whether information is held in relation to any allegations from this individual.’
Morton’s 1992 book revealed Diana’s deep unhappiness in her marriage to King Charles, who was then the Prince of Wales.
At the time, the public were not aware that the book was based on taped recollections which 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 throwing up four times a day as bulimia took hold.
Andrew Morton’s 1992 biography of Princess Diana (left) was written with the royal’s close collaboration. It told the ‘true’ story of Diana’s marriage to the then Prince Charles. Right: Morton
The biographer capitalised on his bestselling work by releasing Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words just months after her death in 1997.
The book featured the transcripts of their conversations, officially outing her as the main source.
This was followed by Diana: In Pursuit of Love in 2004, which detailed her affairs with the likes of soldier James Hewitt, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan and property developer Christopher Walley.
Last year, a 25th anniversary edition of his first book about Diana was released with exclusive new material that was kept out of the first version.
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