Andrew Morton on the Crown, the Queen, and Harry’s memoir

A wide-ranging conversation with the well-known royal author.

When Andrew Morton’s name popped up in my inbox, via an email from his publisher about his new book, I leapt at the chance to speak with him. Morton holds a remarkable place in modern royal history, which features prominently in the fifth season of The Crown. In the early 1990s, Morton arranged for Princess Diana to secretly record answers to his questions; he then used those tapes to write an explosive, best-selling book called Diana: Her True Story. This was the first time the princess’s horrifying account of royal life was published in full, rapidly dispelling any lingering hope of a perceived fairy tale. It shook the world of — and around — the Windsors to the collective core.

At the time of publication, and for years after, Morton denied Diana’s involvement. “If she hadn’t had died, I’d be still saying today: ‘Oh, her friends and family helped, but not the princess,’” he told me. “Obviously, she did pass in 1997, so I was left with no option but to say she was behind the book. Because at the time, people were saying the book is untrue.”

In the years since, Morton has written scores of biographies, including books on Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, and Madonna. Last Tuesday, he published The Queen: Her Life, a sweeping account of the late monarch’s long life. I had the chance to speak with Morton over Zoom about The Crown, the Queen, Harry’s upcoming memoir, and much more. 

Note: Our conversation has been lightly edited and condensed.

Author Andrew Morton in 1992, the year his explosive biography, Diana: Her True Story, was published. (Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

Before we get to your new book, I wanted to ask you about The Crown. The critics were out in full force ahead of its recent release. What do you make of the series?

Andrew Morton: Quite frankly, I think [The Crown’s creator] Peter Morgan has done more for the royal family than members of the royal family. He’s turned them into an international brand in a way they’ve never been looked at before. The secondary characters — Princess Anne, Princess Margaret — all have their day in the sun. And he’s ignited interest in the royal family around the world.

The making of your book on Princess Diana features heavily in one of the episodes. What was it like to work with The Crown as a consultant?

AM: We went through how I got the book moment by moment. I discussed very detailed aspects on a Zoom call with screenwriters. They asked questions like, “What was the color of my daughter’s wallpaper?” because I used that as a study for a time.

There is some dramatic license. It says that my house was broken into [when] actually it was my office that was broken into. What else? Oh, James [Colthurst, who helped facilitate the recordings] was knocked off his bicycle, which is true. As he himself says, if the world had known what was in that basket of tapes that came skittering across Parliament Square, the world might be a different place.

I’ve always said the making of the book was a royal version of All the President’s Men — secrecy, being worried about what’s in the shadows, trying to keep things under wraps.

Actress Elizabeth Debicki as Diana in the fifth season of The Crown, which depicts her secret recordings for Morton. (Photo via Netflix)

 

The royal world was profoundly changed by Diana: Her True Story. How do you feel about your book, all these years later?

AM: I look at the book as something very separate from myself these days. The book took a life of its own and, even 30 years later, there’s a new generation of people who are enthralled and intrigued by the story of how it came about, what was said, what Diana felt. So the process story, that is to say how the book got from a suggestion to a reality, is intriguing in its own way. 

To that end, I think that the power of The Crown seems to be how it makes people feel about the monarchy, especially a new generation who is just learning about this story.

AM: Peter Morgan is an artist. He’s taking the facts and threading and twisting them to his will. And people may complain. But, for example, it’s been a common talking point and piece of history that the Prince of Wales, or the future king, the one waiting in the wings, often plots and intrigues to bring his accession on earlier. Edward VII became very frustrated with Queen Victoria. The Prince of Wales, later Duke of Windsor, was the other way. He wanted his father to live longer so that he could enjoy his sybaritic life. 

As part of The Crown this season, there’s a storyline that suggests that Prince Charles was thinking about his mother stepping down earlier. That’s a perfectly legitimate dramatic point to make. The fact that Prince Charles sees the prime minister, John Major, never happens, but it’s a dramatic point. 

In 1991, there was a calm before the storm. The main story, as he articulates, is the debate about whether the queen should abdicate now that she’s reached the ripe old age of 65. Of course, looking back now, we all think it was ordained that she lived to 96 and led the nation through COVID and Brexit and so on.

But at that time, people were thinking: Well, inject some new blood. And it's a perfectly legitimate dramatic point to make, especially when you compare European monarchies. The Dutch and the Spanish all abdicated. The Pope has abdicated. It’s not a dirty word — in Britain, it was a dirty word because of the circumstances surrounding Edward VIII’s abdication.

In my chat with Dominic West (who plays Prince Charles) he said he looks for the emotional truth in a scene. That feels particularly true with those questions about abdication and the overall narrative of Charles this season. Here is a man in the prime of his life, poised and ready.

AM: And it’s a legitimate thing for the Queen to say, well, if your marriage was a little bit more stable, then maybe I might step back — but, as it’s not, I’ve got to still do the fucking job.

But also, the point I make in my new book, is that the Queen in the beginning was overwhelmed by the tsunami of responsibility. Once she got it under control, she kind of enjoyed the job. And you see that towards the end of her life, she’s having a whale of a time. I mean, when was the last time you saw a head of state parachute out of a plane?

Morton’s latest book, The Queen: Her Life, just hit bookstores this week.

Let’s talk about your book. Why did you want to write a book about the Queen?

AM: The book before that was about Elizabeth and Margaret, the two sisters, and so it was a natural progression from that. I’m showing my age, but it’s 40 years now that I’ve been writing and researching on the royal family. So you pick up stories here and there, and I thought it was a good time to have a look at it. And ironically, it’s coming out just a couple of months after she passed.

When did you start working on it?

I started this one in 2019. My first trip was up to Scotland to see some of the movers and shakers in Edinburgh. People were quite convinced that the Queen would die in Balmoral. It wasn’t even a question of debate. They just said yes, and we’ve got the plans. It was called Operation Unicorn, her dying in Balmoral. And initially, she was going to be taken down south on the train. But because of security concerns, they stopped that. Which is a pity, because it would’ve made a wonderful tableau.

Watching the hearse go through the Highlands, go through from Balmoral down to Edinburgh was pretty poignant. And for me, the most touching moment of that whole period was when the coffin, illuminated, went through London.

Where were you when the Queen passed?

AM: I was in London. And immediately scoured the house for a black tie. I mean, as soon as they said that Prince Charles has called William and Harry to come to Balmoral, you knew it was game over. But there was that disconnect because she’d just seen Liz Truss. She was kind of smiling and spritely. I think all of us think, we wish that we’d go the same way. 

What do you think is the role of the modern monarchy under King Charles III?

AM: There’s been a debate that’s been waiting to happen about the monarchy’s role in the state and also in the Commonwealth — and that’s been set aside out of respect for the Queen.

But I think that, first of all, a number of Commonwealth countries will maybe rethink where they want to go. Somewhere like Australia, where your head of state lives 12,000 miles away, might be seen as odd. All that to be said, we live in a world where big blocks of countries are needed to have any kind of influence. So I’m sure that all the South Sea Island members would want the Commonwealth to continue.

On the other side of things is the administration of the royal estates: Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Sandringham, and Balmoral. What changes are going to be made there? I’ve argued that Prince Charles is a very cultured individual. He likes his art galleries, likes his opera, likes his symphonies. He will have an influence on how Buckingham Palace is shaped going forwards. Is it going to be used more for cultural events? Buckingham Palace came alive for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a concert there. You could do that on a more regular basis. Prince Charles could be — or King Charles — king of culture.

During the jubilee, I was struck by how Brits separated the individual from the institution. There was an enthusiastic celebration of the Queen amid serious questions around the monarchy. How do you think King Charles III is being received?

AM: He’s very much in the honeymoon period. The ire directed at The Crown by members of the establishment is very much concerned that will people be reminded of some of King Charles’s backstory. The man has a hinterland and there’s no escaping that. But I think that there’s a willing suspension of disbelief by many people in the country — and I think that’s what’s happening now. 

As for the future, well, we have the precedent of the past to guide us. After Queen Victoria’s long reign, Edward VII had a relatively short reign, but it was quite dynamic, in so far as the changes to Buckingham Palace. He was instrumental in the Entente Cordiale.

So I would say that King Charles would focus on one thing, probably climate change, as his legacy. But also, he makes some reforms in the private estates that they own, Balmoral, Sandringham, but also what to do with, for example, Kensington Palace. I mean William and Catherine have moved out. Are they going to use that as a royal art gallery? He’s got a lot that he can do and he’s had a lot of time to think things through.

I wanted to ask about the Sussexes. You split your time between Los Angeles and London. Do you think there is a difference between how Harry and Meghan are received in the US versus the UK?

AM: I would say that if you are a Republican or a conservative American or someone of a certain age, you have more empathy and sympathy for the Queen and for the institution and you are more critical of Meghan and Harry. If you are progressive, you see them as a couple trying to make their way, with things to say which are relevant and interesting in the modern world. 

So unfortunately, they have been politicized. They produce a polarized response that’s not necessarily based on the facts, but is based on what they already think about them. There’s a knee-jerk [reaction]. Anything that Meghan does, according to the British tabloids, is wrong. Anything that Harry does is wrong. Everything that the royal family does is right. I’m sure that there’ll be more controversy when his book comes out.

As a royal biographer, what do you make of Harry publishing a memoir?

AM: Oh, I mean, Prince Harry’s got every right to write his memoir. John Moehringer is an excellent ghostwriter. I’ve read several of his books. And he does delve into father-son relationships, so it’s going to be quite the broadside.

But having said that, Harry is not the first member of the royal family or the acolytes to have written a book. His father wrote a book back in 1994 with Jonathan Dimbleby. His mother wrote a book, with me, in 1992. The Duke of Windsor wrote a book in 1951, which deeply annoyed and aggravated the royal family but it was a bestseller.

The royal family, in a funny kind of way, they can all write their books, and when they meet for Christmas, they just kind of ignore it and just keep on doing what they’re doing.

The first-hand accounts do become the definitive stories in a way, don’t they? They carry considerable weight.

AM: Of course it’s got more weight because it’s not taken through the filter of somebody else. For Harry, he has got every right to articulate his memories, his life as he sees it. It’s his story. It’s not necessarily William’s story and it’s not necessarily King Charles’s story, but it is definitely Harry’s story from Harry’s perspective. And it starts with the harrowing journey he made from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey following his mother’s coffin. And I’m quite sure it goes through — given the fact that the title is Spare — it will deal with his relationship with older brother.

I welcome it because it adds to our understanding of the whole family. And all these commentators who want these things banned, I don’t think the job of journalists is banning stuff.

Back to your book, I’m wondering what you hope people will take away from your telling of the Queen’s story?

AM: Well, I think it’s the whole story, start to finish, which is important. It’s attempting to put her in context. But it’s also, as I mentioned earlier, just analyzing how she changed over the years and almost kind of backed into the job. Overwhelmed initially to someone who, by the end, was thoroughly enjoying jumping out of helicopters.

Do you have a favorite memory of the Queen?

AM: One of the things I liked about the Queen was her skillful way of answering questions. I remember she was doing a little walkabout, I think it was just before Christmas, and a little boy said to her, “Your Majesty, do you believe in Father Christmas?” And the Queen said, “I’d like to think that I believed in Father Christmas,” which didn’t spoil the surprise for him, but it was also truthful. It’s just one of those things I very much appreciate. 

I have to say, watching her give that speech for the COVID-19 — the “We will meet again” speech — still brings a tear to my eye when I think about it. I thought that everything about her, her age, her experience, her personality came together in that moment. Because I don't think anybody younger or less worldly could have done that. The impact of that, millions and millions of Britons watching that speech and gaining comfort from it. I think that was her finest hour for me. She was the grandmother to the nation.

My thanks to Andrew Morton. You can find his new book, The Queen: Her Life, at your local independent bookstore, on Bookshop, and on Amazon, or wherever you find your books.