A Royal Duty

A facinating insight to a very private and public family. It changed my opinion on quite a few things. Paul Burrell did an outstanding job.

There's a saying along the lines of "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

Paul Burrell spends over 400 pages describing innumerable instances in which he believed he served as Diana's faultless knight in shining armor. He repeatedly uses words such as "heroic" and "discrete" (!) to describe himself, which struck me as increasingly strange as the book plodded on. Also, Paul has a wife and family but yet states clearly that his loyalty was/is foremost to Diana - all day, every day.

It doesn't someone who's studied psychology (which I have, I should add) to realize Paul Burrell (and Diana, to be honest) have some issues. Most likely, codependency.

Don't read this book if you're hoping to learn a great deal about Princess Diana. If self-congratulatory butlers are your thing, though, this is the book for you.

This was my first story on the Royals. I was really impressed with the lively narration and the concise, but detailed story line. I enjoyed learning about the "servant" side of the story too and how life was for Paul in the Queen's service. I found him very loyal and respectful in telling his story. I hope that this author produces more books on the subject or even on other subjects. He is a great writer and a very good narrator. I enjoyed this a lot.