Home Decor &
Fine Furnishings Show

Paul Burrell
English Lifestyle Expert And Former
Butler to the British Royal Family
To Appear Saturday at the Home Décor & Fine Furnishings Show

Paul Burrell, English lifestyle expert and former butler to the British Royal Family, will appear Saturday midday at the Home Décor & Fine Furnishings Show as the special guest of Connecticut Home Interiors to present his exciting new line of furniture: Royal Manner: The English Country House, by Highland House. Connecticut Home Interiors of West Hartford, CT, is one of only eight stores around the country where Paul Burrell will personally appear in 2007 to promote this exciting new collection of elegant, eclectic, relaxed country English wood and upholstered furniture.
For 11 years, Paul Burrell shadowed Her Majesty the Queen, both at home and abroad, as one of her two trusted senior footmen. In 1987, Diana and Prince Charles selected him to be their butler at Highgrove House, where he lived and worked for the next five years. After Diana and Charles divorced, Paul Burrell became butler and confidante to Diana, Princess of Wales, at Kensington Palace in the five years prior to her death. Most of Paul Burrell’s adult life was spent in palaces, castles, and royal residences, as well as aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, where he has seen and experienced luxurious living and lavish entertaining that most people could never imagine.
“One of my goals is to make elegance affordable,” says Paul Burrell. “During my career, I saw homes, castles, palaces, lavish entertaining and riches beyond most people’s wildest imaginations. I want my furniture to demonstrate that you needn’t be rich or royal to have a taste of the elegant English lifestyle.” 

            In his many years of service to the British Royal Family, Paul Burrell worked closely in and around some of the most beautiful homes and palaces in England. In actuality, his travels included far more than Great Britain and Europe, as his years of service gave him firsthand views of some of the most interesting, well-furnished and lavish houses in virtually every corner of the world. His experiences living and working in fine homes with priceless art collections and furnishings provided Paul Burrell with all manner of expertise. He has become a taste arbiter and expert in food, wines, furnishings, flower arranging, etiquette and entertaining, especially in the English style.    
Positions in royal service carry great prestige, and yet most Americans are unfamiliar with terms such as footman and butler. As a senior footman, Paul Burrell shadowed the Queen daily, wherever she was in the world, serving her for both personal and state matters. As butler, he was something more akin to chief of staff or director of a royal household, in charge of every aspect of running the house and supervising all staff members. Such jobs in royal service are entrusted only to someone with the highest level of manners, expertise, moral standards and discretion. Unlike professional corporate employees, many royal staff members share virtually every facet of the personal lives of their prominent employers.
            In November 1997, Paul Burrell was decorated by the Queen of England with the Royal Victorian Medal at an investiture at Buckingham Palace. He has written three books, the first in 1999, on etiquette and entertaining, In the Royal Manner, Expert Advice on Etiquette and Entertaining. His autobiography, A Royal Duty, was a New York Times bestseller in 2003. In the fall of 2006, Burrell published his latest book, which is about his relationship with the princess, The Way We Were: Remembering Diana.
         In addition to his furniture collection, Royal Manner: The English Country House, by Highland House, he has collaborated with Kalaty Rug Corporation for a licensed rug collection called Royal Manner: The Rug Collection. The initial rug series includes traditional European and Middle Eastern patterns and colorations designed to mix and match within the furniture collection by Highland House. 
         Today, Paul Burrell, his wife, Maria, and their sons, Nick and Alex divide their time between homes in Farndon, Cheshire, in the UK and central Florida. Among Paul Burrell’s many interests are his flower shop in Farndon, Cheshire, and numerous media and product licensing ventures, which include china and crystal as well as the 2006 launch of a collection of fine wines from around the world, the first of which are from the award-winning winery, Hungerford Hill.

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