FORMER royal butler Paul Burrell revealed last night he would never have written his controversial book if he had received "just one phone call" from the Royal Family.

The former servant also said he would love to give Princes William and Harry "a piece of his mind" and told them to "grow up".

The latest attack from Mr Burrell is certain to deepen the row with Buckingham Palace after the royal brothers accused him of a "cold and overt betrayal" of their mother.

And the war of words is likely to heat up today when Mr Burrell's revelations about his former boss, Diana, Princess of Wales, are published in his book, A Royal Duty.

In an interview with BBC One's Real Story, to be broadcast today, Mr Burrell said he would not have written the book had he had a call after the collapse of his theft trial at the Old Bailey last year.

"This is not my revenge, absolutely not," he told interviewer Fiona Bruce.

"It would have been a very different world if the telephone had rung and the boys had said 'Oh Paul, we're sorry we couldn't help you during your trial, we just couldn't, our hands were tied. Why don't you come down to London with Maria and the boys and we'll do something'."

Concerning the book, he said: "Just one telephone call would have stopped it - one. Is that too much to ask, really?

"Having served the Royal Family for 21 years, is one telephone call too much? It's not."

Mr Burrell's comments came as he prepared for a whirlwind of interviews in Britain and the US to promote his book.

He has refused to apologise for his revelations. And there is still no indication of whether a meeting between him and princes William and Harry will take place, despite both sides agreeing to one.

Mr Burrell told Ms Bruce: "I am angry with them. Why do they listen to other people around them?

"Why listen to people who always say yes and no one tells you no? I'd love to give them a piece of my mind."

A spokeswoman for Clarence House said any meeting would be a private affair, while a spokesman for Mr Burrell said he had not yet had a phone call.

Mr Burrell told the BBC he was saddened and angry by the princes' scathing attack on him, but claimed they were being used as "emotional cannons" by the "grey men in suits" at the palace.

"I felt immediately that those boys were being manipulated and massaged by the system," he said. "By those people who did exactly the same to their mother."

Mr Burrell also told the BBC it was time for the princes to "grow up".

Up to 135,000 copies of A Royal Duty will hit UK book stores today, an amount described by publisher Penguin as exceptional.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Burrell said that letters, allegedly to and from Diana - which formed a basis for the book - were just the "tip of the iceberg".

He will spend the next two days in a round of interviews defending his book, starting with BBC's Radio Five Live and the Today programme this morning.

Earlier yesterday, a friend of Diana, Vivienne Parry, said Prince William should put the former butler "back in his pantry".