"On Duty With The Queen" by Dickie Arbiter (2014)

[Hilda Thomas]

Some people have short term memory.

 

[US Royal Watcher]

Some people have short term memory.

I've provided my source so please provide yours. Of course, many people with long memories would say that since Diana wrote a tell all book about Charles, the Hewitt book was a good example of "what goes around, comes around."

 

[ROYAL NORWAY]

This thread should be closed.

 

[Warren]

I'd prefer to leave it open. Uninformed speculation and rhetorical questions are easily enough removed. Mr Arbiter is currently playing his cards very close to his chest but there's sure to be a series of deliberate leaks in the lead-up to publication, and possibly some newspaper serialisation. A reassuring sign is that the publication date is not 31 August.

 

[Queen Camilla]

It should be merged with the one in library (with the Hewitt references deleted).

 

[XeniaCasaraghi]

I've provided my source so please provide yours. Of course, many people with long memories would say that since Diana wrote a tell all book about Charles, the Hewitt book was a good example of "what goes around, comes around."

I admit that's how I feel.
I asked a few weeks ago if all these friends sand employees betraying Diana was a reflection on the kind of person she was. This new book makes me think it wasn't a reflection on Diana but that money will always trump loyalty, discretion, and respect for other people. Now I will withhold judgement until more facts actually come out, it might be a book about being a private secretary and what the job entails with no mention of personal details.

 

[US Royal Watcher]

I admit that's how I feel.
I asked a few weeks ago if all these friends sand employees betraying Diana was a reflection on the kind of person she was. This new book makes me think it wasn't a reflection on Diana but that money will always trump loyalty, discretion, and respect for other people. Now I will withhold judgement until more facts actually come out, it might be a book about being a private secretary and what the job entails with no mention of personal details.

I really don't feel that way--although I don't think Diana should have written the book. I was just irritated that yet another poster was manufacturing facts to fit a certain point of view.

I am not sure what Arbiter's book will include. The publisher would expect him to reveal some personal insights into the royal family, but I expect most of the book is Arbiter's own reactions to public events, such as Diana's death.

Regardless, I understand why some posters are upset that he is publishing a book. The fact is that most large employers around the world require employees to sign confidentiality agreements as part of their employment contracts. Whatever people think of the royal family, they are human beings and have a right to some privacy. Few of us could withstand the scrutiny the royal family and other celebrities have to endure.

 

[tommy100]

Every week some drama is going on according to the tabloids. I doubt that anything in the book relating to Prince Charles's and Princess Diana's marriage isn't anything we have heard or read about.

Also let's bear in mind that he was a Press Secretary/Officer and not a member of the private household like Burrell was for example. He likely will not have seen all that many 'private' moments as such between members of the RF. On top of that I expect, personally, he will keep it all above board and rather factual than gossipy!!!

 

[Tarlita]

Perhaps people close to the royal family are often hounded with ridiculous sums of money to Tell All. Eventually some circum to the pressure. Publishers these days will receive a biography and say thats all well and good but where's the spicy stuff!!! Then the poor old writer has to go away and make stuff up as they might have just written the truth but it won't sell unless there is some sort of scandal to market it with. I hope Dickie stays true and loyal.

 

[scooter]

I'm actually looking forward to this book. We spend so much of our time hear speculating on what's going on with whatever royal family. He was actually there.

 

[mslewis]

This is such a betrayal of trust. None of us need to know what goes on behind closed doors of well-known people. Not just the royal family but any celebrity. He was trusted to be discrete and he is betraying that trust. That's pretty awful, in my book. However, I have a feeling this book will sell very well because that is the nature of our world these days. Pity.

 

[PrincessOfPeace]

Buckingham Palace has ordered a crack down on any future memoirs by Royal staff after a former press chief published his bombshell account of life with the monarchy.

Dickie Arbiter, who was a trusted aide to Prince Charles and Princess Diana for 12 years, has revealed intimate secrets of his time at the palace in an autobiography entitled “On Duty With The Queen: My Time As A Buckingham Palace Press Officer.”

Yesterday he faced a bitter public backlash after selling the rights to a national newspaper which detail the breakdown of three Royal marriages and affairs.

Billed as the “former press chief reveals all - and it’s even more toxic than you thought”, the first of several extracts “laid bare Diana’s despair”.

Leading figures in the Royal family have now warned staff and lawyers to tighten up any future employment contracts to prevent future embarrassment.

The Queen and Prince Charles are said to be “furious” at what they see as Arbiter’s betrayal of Royal secrets and officials have held a series of tense meetings to discuss the book.

Buckingham Palace orders crackdown on memoirs by Royal staff after former press chief's explosive book - Mirror Online

 

[tommy100]

Having read the daily mail's extract from teh book I can see nothingso far that is any worse than the books Diana and Charles themselves authorised to be released. At least in this book there is probably less likely to be a bias on one side or the other. IMO Charles is hypoctrical to say staff can not write about his marriage etc when he worked with Johnothon Dimbleby on a book about it himself.

 

[Dman]

I just hope those mistakes of the past won't be repeated. We all know no family is perfect, including members of the royal family, but that old mess can't be repeated.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

The real story behind the photos that laid bare Diana's despair: For 12 years he guarded the most intimate secrets of Charles, Diana (and Camilla). Now, their former press officer reveals all* | Daily Mail Online

Prince Charles' 'anger' Queen's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter's book | Daily Mail Online

 

[Skippyboo]

"On Duty With The Queen" - Dicke Arbiter (2014)

I would have thought after all the books written by Diana's staff -Burrell, the chef, the bodyguard, private secretary after her death, there would have been such a clause in royal employment contracts. Royal tellalls have been going on since Marion Crawford.

Imagine how much money someone like Jamie Lowther- Pinkerton could get. Not that I think he ever would.


Sent from my iPhone using The Royals Community

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

'You've let the cat out of the bag... Why don't you just go and get drunk?' Diana and Charles's ex-press chief reveals the advice he gave her on morning explosive kiss-and-tell was published  | Daily Mail Online

 

[Tarlita]

It is the stuff of newspapers to beat up a headline only for a reader to find it was all a lot of fluff and hardly any substance. I think we need to wait until expressing outrage.

 

[Nice Nofret]

The problem with all this 'kiss and tell books' is, that people very much concerned with the matter (i.g. Will & Harry) are still very much alive and they have to live through all this mess again and again.

Which - on top of all the 'normal' level of press scrutiny ads even more pressure.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

It is sad that loyalty seems to be a forgotten word in the British royal household. A true gentleman would prefer to bite his tongue off than reveal all about the people whom once put so much trust in him.

 

[MARG]

Unfortunately we live in an instant world. Instant gratification demands instant access to salacious gossip and the media at large are happy to pay their inside sources very large sums of money. For the same reason publishing houses are ready to offer large amounts of money, up front in the form of avances, to enable anyone who may have worked closely with anyone of note, from the Queen to Victoria Beckam, to write their "memoires". The BRF have always relied on "loyalty" and regardless of how many times their trust has been broken, they still seem to be very "old school" in their responses.

Unfortunately I believe that the BRF senior advisors have been unbelieveably remiss in not realising the necessity for every single person employed by them to have an iron clad, non-disclosure clause, in their employment contract. And so we have Dickie Arbiter, who is definitely no gentleman, publishing a trashy inside scoop. But really, what has his book got to offer that has not already be well and truely recycled?

It is naïve to believe that things are going to get any better and so they need to be on the offensive instead of playing inept defence. I do believe that when and if there is actionable behaviour, the BRF should sue. Irrespective of anything else, sue and keep doing it. Because that is the only way that they can be taken seriously. The days of "not dignifying them with a response" are well and truely over.

 

[roseroyal]

'You've let the cat out of the bag... Why don't you just go and get drunk?' Diana and Charles's ex-press chief reveals the advice he gave her on morning explosive kiss-and-tell was published* | Daily Mail Online

The photos of Diana with the children in this article are absolutely precious.

 

[muriel]

It is sad that loyalty seems to be a forgotten word in the British royal household. A true gentleman would prefer to bite his tongue off than reveal all about the people whom once put so much trust in him.

Its a pity when people like Dicky feel the need to cash in on their royal service!

 

[Dman]

What really happened behind Palace doors in royalty's darkest hour: A prince too frightened to view Diana's condolence book. The Queen gripped with anxiety. An insider reveals torment over the princess's death-
What really happened behind Palace doors in royalty's darkest hour: A prince too frightened to view Diana's condolence book. The Queen gripped with anxiety. An insider reveals the torment over the princess's death | Daily Mail Online

That was one sad time. I was a young teenager at the time but I reme,ber crying over the wall to wall coverage on CNN, MSNBC and NBC. It was something I'll never forget.

 

[Queen Camilla]

Why had none of them signed the books of condolence?

I thought Edward wasn't interested in viewing(signing) the book of condolence.

Why would Arbiter or anyone expect a member of the royal family to sign the book of condolence? Those related to the deceased do not sign the book of condolence.

 

[MARG]

You are right of course, but it made good copy for his book. Having already smacked an insensitve Army Officer on the nose with a metaphorical rolled up newspaper, he heads out to tackle the resident royals. The ignorant, insensitive and spineless Prince Edward, versus the heroic, compassionate stalwart, Dickie Arbiter.

Cue Barber's Adagio for Strings​

Further, there he was guiding HM outside the gates to meet with her people and re-establish her place with them as she surveys the oceans of cellephane and dying flowers and gently, tenderly, telling her she had done what she needed to and it was all right to go back inside.

This man is a peice of work and I hope (useless I know) that anyone with half a brain interprets this book for what it is . . . A Royal Soap Opera whose heroic central character, Dickie Arbiter, a man oinfinate wisdom and mercy, is not a royal but rather a commoner who brings humanity back to the Royal Family.

 

[Dman]

It was a crazy and sad time. I think, if anything, the royal family and palace officials were in a state of shock and sad. They had to pull themselves together and do what had to be done.

 

[roseroyal]

What really happened behind Palace doors in royalty's darkest hour: A prince too frightened to view Diana's condolence book. The Queen gripped with anxiety. An insider reveals torment over the princess's death-
What really happened behind Palace doors in royalty's darkest hour: A prince too frightened to view Diana's condolence book. The Queen gripped with anxiety. An insider reveals the torment over the princess's death | Daily Mail Online

That was one sad time. I was a young teenager at the time but I reme,ber crying over the wall to wall coverage on CNN, MSNBC and NBC. It was something I'll never forget.

Very moving.

 

[scooter]

I am looking forward to the book.

 

[AdmirerUS]

Dickie has shown bad form.
But having read some of the things Forum members believe and will represent as fact on our own pages, I'm all for people finding out about all the hijinks Diana, Charles, their staff and other palace staff engaged in 90s, as the War of the Windsors played out.
People on all sides were bad mannered and petty. Knives were thrown in backs. By all sides. There were no saints.
What I've read excerpted from the book so far has not been hyperbole. I will read it. I'll keep a skeptical eye peeled, but as I lived through the period, I will be interested. And while my personal belief is that the Queen has shown she is above this kind of bad behavior, there were those on her staff who were willing to throw oil on the fires. That will be my interest. Just my opinion.