Palace: Blair memoirs 'cheap and cheerful'

LONDON, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Queen Elizabeth II is displeased that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's memoir details private meetings between the two, members of her staff said.

Senior members of the queen's staff described a "profound sense of disappointment" in Blair, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

"Her Majesty has to be able to talk to her chief minister in confidence, without any sense of trepidation that her words might some day be retailed in a cheap and cheerful volume of memoirs," one told the newspaper. "No prime minister before has ever done this and we can only hope that it will never happen again."

In "A Journey," Blair says in his first visit to Balmoral after the death of Princess Diana, the queen discussed the public reaction and the lessons that had to be learned from it.

Blair says in his first official meeting with the queen she told him: "You are my tenth prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born."

He said his wife once suggested Princess Anne call her by her first name, Cherie. The princess royal replied that she preferred to use Mrs. Blair.