AS IF turbulent butlers and missing dhows were not enough, Buckingham Palace now faces more embarrassing revelations — from beyond the grave.

The Cabinet Office is to make an announcement shortly about the publication of secret papers concerning the 1936 Abdication crisis, which were withheld during Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s lifetime to protect her sensitivities.

She deeply resented Edward VIII’s decision to abdicate and marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. She believed the consequent burden placed on her husband, George VI, contributed to his death in 1952 at the age of 56. The duchess was known for ever afterwards as “that woman” and the “the lowest of the low”.

While the official papers will reveal far more than has ever been told about Edward and Mrs Simpson, the most interesting document may be the diary of the Queen Mother herself, which is stored at Windsor Castle.

The existence of her memoirs was revealed in the entertaining diaries of the late Woodrow Wyatt. The Queen Mother, according to Wyatt, said of her diary: “I shall put it in the archives at Windsor and they can decide what to do about it years ahead. Nobody else knows that I’m going to do this.”

Buckingham Palace, which has no control over the release of the official papers, declined to comment on whether the Queen Mother’s thoughts would ever see the light of day.

A spokesman for the Public Record Office said: “Papers about the Queen Mother have been identified. We are looking to them being available to the media in the new year.”

Unless, of course, the most interesting documents have been through the shredder.

Chomsky flies in for lecture at St Paul's

HE HAS become one of the ten most quoted sources in the humanities — along with Shakespeare and the Bible. Noam Chomsky, the founding father of linguistic philosophy and tireless scourge of American imperialism, is making a rare visit to London next week.

Chomsky, who will be 74 tomorrow, will deliver a lecture at St Paul’s Cathedral on Monday. He will criticise President Bush for ignoring the peace process in the Middle East and focusing instead on plans to topple President Saddam Hussein. Chomsky will be introduced by fellow agitator Harold Pinter.

The 2,000 tickets to see Chomsky, who has taught linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1955, were sold out within hours, after the lecture was advertised alongside concerts by Elton John and Paul Weller on TicketWeb, a pop music ticket website.

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