Veteran Fleet Street royal reporters Phil Dampier and Ashley Walton hope you have after authoring Christmas stocking filler What’s In the Queen’s Handbag.
As well as the title chapter, there are sections on royal ghosts, the corgis,
below-stairs shenanigans of the servants, stories about the Queen and Queen Mum’s race horses, and the royals’ tastes in food and drink.
Dampier, 50, who was The Sun’s royal reporter in the late Eighties, told Axegrinder: “We’ve already been on ITV’s This Morning talking to Eamonn Holmes about the book and we’ve had a lot of publicity worldwide.
“The contents of Her Majesty’s handbag is by far and away the biggest selling feature I’ve had since I turned freelance 15 years ago.
“People are fascinated by it, and royal gossip generally. We’ve got a never-before-told story about how Princess Diana came across some servants body-building one morning and began flirting with them, feeling their muscles.
“And there’s a great tale about how Paul Burrell used to unzip his flies on a regular basis because the sound of it upset one of the corgis!
“It’s not Ernest Hemingway, but the punters seem to like it.â€
The book follows on from the success of their previous tome detailing the wit and wisdom of the Duke of Edinburgh.
Walton, 63, who was Daily Express royal correspondent from 1979 to 1992 added: “We are really pleased with Duke of Hazard, which has sold more than 14,000 copies.
“What makes it particularly satisfying is that Kelvin MacKenzie came to our launch party and, although he liked the book, predicted we would only sell 500. We have had the last laugh, and Kelvin’s John Prescott Karma Sutra book has disappeared without a trace.â€
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