London - The death of Harold Albert, assistant to the prolific royal biographer Helen Cathcart, has revealed she did not exist - "she" was actually Harold Albert.
For years Cathcart, considered a shy recluse whose only contact with her publishers and the outside world seemed to be through Albert, was a hugely popular writer on the queen and her family.
Despite suspicions that Albert was the true author of the score of books published between 1962 and 1988, the matter was only settled publicly by a death notice in the Times, the paper said last night.