Then Diana retaliated by doing Panorama …” He says that any accusations that he might have further wounded Princes William and Harry with his revelations are ludicrous. Why? Because, he thinks, “she wanted to get her retaliation in first.” Retaliation against whom? “Charles, for going back to Camilla shortly after their marriage. But, even so, he asked Dr James Colthurst – a mutual friend – if he would ask her to consider answering some questions Amazingly, she agreed. Great fun.” Then, via the News of the World and the Daily Mail, he went freelance to concentrate on books.

Prior to Diana, Her True Story, he had written eight marginally successful but highly forgettable books with titles such as Inside Kensington Palace and Prince Andrew, The Playboy Prince – which, even he accepts, “must be one of the worst books ever”.He began researching his Diana book in the winter of 1990 Of course, he did not expect Diana to collaborate. His first ever royal job was chasing Prince Andrew and Koo Stark to Mustique “Great fun. “It always fascinated me that so few people could own so much of the world.” His father would have liked him to have taken over the business – he was brought up, he says, in an atmosphere of “one day, son, all this Winsor & Newton ink will be yours” – but he’d always wanted to be a journalist His mother, Katherine, “had twitching curtain syndrome She always wanted to know what was going on. And so did I.”Before arriving at the Daily Star, he had done his stint on local newspapers and had married his teenage sweetheart, Lynne, whom he’d met on a caravanning holiday when 17 (They have two daughters, now 12 and 14). All you can do is go on to Richard and Judy and have an hysterical phone-in.” I tell him that not all British journalists are bitter and twisted and jealous.

(But, that said, your tie’s horrid and you do write novelette purple. “Like a gust of wind across a field of corn, her moods fluctuated endlessly.” Not, I think, a line nicked from Dostoevsky.)Andrew Morton was born and brought up in Yorkshire. His father, Alec, ran a picture framing and art materials business in Dewsbury. He thinks a lot of the enmity he aroused had to do with class hatred “If you are given pounds 100m just for being born, it’s OK. But if you work hard and earn some money, then the British despise you.”A bright boy, he went to Leeds Grammar, then to Sussex university where he studied history and developed an interest in aristocracies and elites.

Even I think less of myself whenever I see it.He goes on to grumble a lot about journalism today. It’s all adversarial, he complains, “It’s like everyone wants to get in the ring with me and take a punch.” He prefers, he says, the American style, “because you can just go on and tell a story Where can you do that here? Newsnight? I don’t think so. “I could see over the crowds, and knew that Philip was spelt with one “l”.We meet at a hotel, which is a shame, because I would like to have seen his house in Highgate, north London, which is worth pounds 1m, and very smart by all accounts He won’t have it, though. The trouble with inviting journalists in, he says, is that they “later go off and spend three paragraphs sneering at your furniture”.I am disappointed, I tell him, but can see he has a point. I can’t even leave my own house without sneering over my furniture You should see the carpet in the front room A horrible thing with swirly patterns on, it is. He thinks it was his height, plus, of course, his intelligence, that first recommended him as the Daily Star’s royal correspondent. The new one has topped the best-seller lists since the day it came out.Andrew Morton is a huge man : 6ft 4in; huge shoulders; huge hands; huge neck; huge, square jaw; hugely handsome in a very Christopher-Reeve-meets- Clark-Kent-via-a-shopping-spree-in-C&A sort of way.