MADreads

Chronicling Diana

August 16th, 2007 Ann M.

What better way to combat the dog days of summer than to read something really trashy. That, at least, was my justification for checking out The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown.  I promised myself that I would just look at the pictures and browse through a few chapters, but much to my surprise, I ended up reading the book from cover to cover

You probably won’t be interested in the Chronicles unless you are already a fan of Diana’s or the Royal Family, and if you are, you’ll find much that is already familiar.  But Brown adds so much new detail and writes with so much background knowledge of British society and royaly that she brings fresh insight to the whole sad story (she is the former editor of the upscale gossip magazines the Tatler and Vanity Fair, and knew Diana and many of the royals personally.) With 486 pages of text and 44 pages of footnotes, this book has more the feel of an authorized biography than a “tell-all”.

But Brown also drops enticing little tidbits, such as the idea that much of Camilla’s appeal for Charles is because she closely resembles his beloved nanny!  She offers much new information about Diana’s sad, lonely childhood, the completely dysfunctional Spenser family, Diana’s many love affairs, and whether Dodi and Diana would have married—a resounding “no!’

Ultimately, The Diana Chronicles asks the reader to decide if Diana was “the people’s princess” who electrified the world with her beauty and her humanitarian missions, or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy?

You’ll have to decide for yourself, but Tina Brown convinced me that she was both.

Entry Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Nonfiction