Burrell book costs Penguin

Royal outrage at Paul Burrell's controversial memoir about his life as butler to Diana, Princess of Wales, has cost his publisher a deal to print the official biography of the Queen Mother.

The Queen asked royal biographer William Shawcross last summer to write the life story of her beloved mother, who died in 2002.

Penguin secured the rights to the book but its publication of Mr Burrell's work, A Royal Duty, so offended the Royal Family that Mr Shawcross cancelled the deal.

He said last night: 'After Pengiun published Paul Burrell's book, I decided I could not publish the Queen Mother's official biography with the same [publishing] house.'

The Queen Mother's biography, which is expected to sell more than 250,000 copies in Britain alone, has now been signed by Macmillan.

Meanwhile, Mohammed al-Fayed has accused the Duke of Edinburgh of ordering the killing of Diana and his son, Dodi.

The Harrods owner was filmed by a French documentary team cursing the Duke, saying: 'I am fighting to find out who killed my son and Diana. Who executed this matter? Prince Philip'.

Mr al-Fayed refuses to believe the crash, in 1999, was an accident.

The revelation came as the Queen's coroner opened an inquest yesterday into the death of Diana.