Yes, apparently it's true.
I think the reason the Queen Mother reacted the way she did was simply that one of the trusted staff had written a book about the royal family that hadn't been authorised or otherwise controlled by the royal family and household. It wasn't so much the content (athough I did read that the Queen Mother was upset that Miss Crawford had mentioned about Princess Margaret not being particularly physically strong) as the principle of the thing.
I think they figured that if other people saw that there had been severe consequences from the royal family for Miss Crawford as a result of writing her book, they'd be less likely to be tempted to do likewise.
That sort of thing doesn't work nowadays, though! People don't care as much what the royal family think, papers are offering a lot of money for revelations, and the public seems to be avid to read any tidbits about the private lives of celebrities and other famous people.
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