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The Diana Chronicles

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"Intensely well researched and an un-put-down-able read, Tina Brown's extraordinary book parts the brocaded velvet and allows us an unprecedented look at the world and mind of the most famous person on the planet. A social commentary, a historical document and a psychological examination, written by a superb investigative journalist."

–Academy Award ® Winning Actress Helen Mirren

Ten years after her death, Princess Diana remains a mystery. Was she “the people’s princess,” who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions? Or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy?

Only Tina Brown, former Editor-in-Chief of Tatler , England’s glossiest gossip magazine; Vanity Fair ; and The New Yorker could possibly give us the truth. Tina knew Diana personally and has far-reaching insight into the royals and the Queen herself.

In The Diana Chronicles, you will meet a formidable female cast and understand as never before the society that shaped them:   Diana's sexually charged mother, her scheming grandmother, the stepmother she hated but finally came to terms with, and bad-girl Fergie, her sister-in-law, who concealed wounds of her own.  Most formidable of them all was her mother-in-law, the Queen, whose admiration Diana sought till the day she died. Add Camilla Parker-Bowles, the ultimate "other woman" into this combustible mix, and it's no wonder that Diana broke out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect.  

542 pages, Hardcover

First published June 12, 2007

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About the author

Tina Brown

7 books229 followers
Tina Brown, Lady Evans (born Christina Hambley Brown) is a journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host and author of The Diana Chronicles, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, a personal friend. Born a British citizen, she took United States citizenship in 2005. She became the editor-in-chief of Tatler magazine at the age of 25, and rose to prominence in the American media industry as the editor of the magazines Vanity Fair from 1984 to 1992 and of The New Yorker from 1992 to 1998. In 2007, she was named to the Magazine Editors Hall of Fame. She has also been honored with four George Polk Awards, five Overseas Press Club awards, and ten National Magazine Awards. She is currently writing a non-fiction work on Bill and Hillary Clinton.

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5 stars
1,433 (25%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 648 reviews
Profile Image for Alexa.
Author 5 books3,367 followers
December 21, 2020
Yes, I read this because of The Crown lol. Can't believe I slept on this for 13 years, honestly. It was a great read. A bit salacious--Tina Brown definitely had a specific POV, but I personally appreciated it, and picked up this book in particular b/c reviews said the writing was colorful and the portrait not completely sanitized.

So this isn't for the Diana purists. I found parts of the book sharp in its assessment, but overall pretty even-handed, considering. Brown knows a lot about the royals, covered them for decades, and actually has enough information/perspective to be fair, re: "the other side." There are always two sides, and while of course I bought the Diana side of the narrative back in the day... b/c I was literally a child (I was 13 when she died), as an adult logically I know it can't have been so clearly one-sided? The Diana Chronicles was meticulously researched and sourced, which I appreciated. The only slightly "off" thing is that it was published in 2007 so it's out of date in that sense--at the very end when it mentioned William's ex-girlfriend Kate Middleton I was like wut. I had forgotten they broke up for a time haha.

I definitely came away drawing my own conclusions, re: Diana. I think she was complex, complicated, and a bit messy as a person. Brown is very empathetic where she needs to be and gives her warm praise for the things that made Diana sparkle, but she doesn't gloss over the uglier stuff--pushing her step-mom down a flight of stairs (!!!), leaking Fergie information to the press (dirty, yo), screwing over same step-mom when her dad died, re: kicking her out of the house. Diana's vindictive and manipulative streaks are examined in detail. She was ultimately human. Brown examines the theories and accusations, re: Diana having bpd, and the information is compelling, but I really liked how clear Brown was that she was never diagnosed, and even Charles excised that chapter from his official tell-all in the 90s (before she died), out of respect.

Brown used to work for the British tabloids and it shows, but that is a compliment. The writing is delightfully colorful. I can see where the writers of The Crown read this book, as well, which was fun. Her accounting of Charles's bachelor years and some very specific earlier scenes with him and Diana feel ripped from this book. I can only imagine what they'll use from season 5.

So I do highly recommend this is you also are interested more in Diana & Charles due to the Crown, and are looking for something that isn't just Saint Diana. It's a fascinating portrait of a real person thrust into a bonkers situation, who sometimes was the aggrieved party but also often created the situations she found herself in. Some of the stuff she did in the early 90s was like... GIRL.
Profile Image for Tatiana.
1,448 reviews11.5k followers
December 12, 2019
Yes, I've sunk this low and have no regrets.

If I learned anything from this massive gossip rag is that the royal family are a bunch of vapid, self-absorbed, spoiled, attention-seeking, messy people who can't keep it in their pants. Which makes me question why some (cough *kate middleton*cough*meghan markle*cough) are so keen on being a part of this pathetic circus. It takes a certain kind of person to crave this life.

#britishmonarchysux

Going to catch up on Crown next.
Profile Image for Chris.
111 reviews4 followers
October 16, 2007
Too detailed, and yet, not detailed enough. You can't just say things like "Camilla's friends thought Diana had Borderline Personality Disorder" and leave it at that. Why did they think so? Did they say anything at the time, or is this a post facto diagnosis?

By the end I was thoroughly sick of Diana and Charles, neither of whom had/has a bit of sense. They both seemed smart enough, in different ways, but totally spoiled and not a bit strategic. I get the sense Brown was tired of them as well, as the chapters detailing the decline of the marriage were of the "he said/she said, she did/he did" sort, with none of the larger social class and customs scene setting (which I mentioned in a comment on Alissa's review) that marked the early chapters.

Sadly lacking in photos, too, especially for a book that talked about all the iconic pictures of Diana and Co. over the years.
21 reviews
August 18, 2010
My level of interest in this book fluctuated depending on the topic being addressed. The truth is, Diana Spencer was not an interesting person before she became involved with the royal family, and the sections about her early life could put you to sleep. The sections about Charles's early life, on the other hand, are pretty interesting. Reading certain sections was like watching a train wreck in slow motion; in many ways Diana was her own worst enemy, with an inability to learn from experience. Most fascinating in an awful way are the accounts of her mutually parasitic relationship with the press--it used her, then she used it, then all sides got mad and destructive, to the disadvantage of all, and never mind the House of Windsor. The way she was treated by photographers was actually shocking to me. Tina Brown clearly had some great sources. Alas, no one emerges in a favorable light.
Profile Image for Vintage.
2,518 reviews535 followers
May 31, 2022
I love to watch the Royal Family and have for years.

I remember the Randy Andrew/Koo Stark scandal and a sexual predator in training, the parade of virginal princesses for bachelor Prince Charles, Diana watch, getting up at the crack of dawn to see THE wedding and how disappointed I was with her dress, lying in bed five months pregnant and ugly crying when Will and Harry lined up behind her coffin.

Not much new in this book, but my God, the platinum level cheating of the British upper caste! The fact that Tina Brown has escaped being sued is incredible as she name drops the paramours of Charles, Mountbatten and the list goes on....and on.

Compilation of gossip that dates back a few decades and definitely takes the shine off the crown.
Profile Image for *TUDOR^QUEEN* .
498 reviews548 followers
October 21, 2021
5 Stars

I remember the time before kindles were invented when I bought every hardcover book that came out about Princess Diana, in ravenous fashion. Even though I purchased the hardcover version of this book when it first was published in 2007, I somehow never read it. Perhaps it was the bland cover that put me off (no picture of Princess Diana at all) and deflated my expectations. I recently encountered the kindle version on sale with a beautiful yellow cover with Princess Diana's picture, and I was off to the races plowing through this almost 700 page behemoth. It didn't take long for me to ask myself, "Why did you wait so long to read this?!!!" This has to be one of the best if not THE best book I've ever read about Princess Diana, and I've read the most and best of them.

The author Tina Brown was the Editor of Vanity Fair when Princess Diana first came on the royal scene. She had a great perspective at the point she wrote this book because Princess Diana had already been gone ten years. Brown knew all the players in this royal story very well, and her seasoned and wise observations rang true- especially given the time for the dust to settle after a decade without our dearest Diana. This was a treasure trove for me to explore, with many new kernels of information and keen observations. I savored this voluminous wonder and am truly looking forward to her new book coming out in April 2022, The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor--the Truth and the Turmoil. You can be sure this time I won't wait 14 years to read it!
Profile Image for Maggie.
245 reviews16 followers
August 18, 2007
Shut up.

Brown's work starts out with such promise. She offers an insightful look at not only the development of Diana from small, shy child to media mogul, but also the changing face of the British press and media from the late 60s onwards. This well-written discussion lasts for the first 200 pages or so. Once Diana and Charles say "I Do", it's back to business as usual as Brown rehashes the same old cover stories, photo ops, and leaked phone recordings. She almost pulls it back together at the end with her discussion on the rehabilitation of Camilla, but can't quite reset the tone.

It's worth a read if you're a fan of the British monarchy, press, or class systems. Otherwise, you probably don't need to bother.
Profile Image for Lori.
174 reviews14 followers
October 21, 2009
How could another book, and a 482 page book at that, on Diana possibly be entertaining or shed more light on the subject? Well, Tina Brown manages to do just that. Not only are the Diana Chronicles entertaining and very readable it begins by shedding a new light on Diana and the entire social climate of Britian during the eighties and nineties. Brown begins with a drama, the accident in Paris. Her writing is dynamic and flowing. It draws the reader in right away. No one can forget the images on tv or the stunned feeling they had when they learned that Diana, Princess of Wales had been killed in a car accident.
What leads up to this accident is the meat of the story, beginning with Diana's home life through her marriage and divorce. What I enjoyed about this book is that Brown doesn't pass any judgements. She presents the information with commentary on what it was like for a women at that time in British society, especially if you were from the social background that Diana was from. She relates Diana's shortcomings but doesn't assign blame and refreshingly doesn't throw her own amatuer psycholocial explations in there. An underlying message in the book is the changes that Diana brought about to the very fabric of society through her media exposure. She brought into the spotlight, issues women can relate to; low self esteem, bulima, post natal depression and the trials and joys of motherhood. She championed causes that others wouldn't touch, not out of manipulation,but from an inner compassion that simply radiated from her. She single handedly changed from her actions the way the monarchy is forced to deal with the public. She may not have set out to do these things, but through her life's experiences and her own natural gifts she was an instigator of personal and social change in her lifetime.
Profile Image for Kricket.
2,294 reviews
February 10, 2021
After three weeks of lugging this giant tome onto the bus with me every morning, I'm finally finished. Several people asked, when spotting me with it, "why are you reading that?" Why indeed.
My fascination with Diana stemmed from childhood- there was a paper doll set involved, as well as the word "princess." I recall hearing about her divorce from Charles. I was sad when she died. But I didn't really know anything about her. Now I do.
Most interesting, I thought, were the chapters on her background and early marriage. Then comes about 15 chapters on her media wars with Charles, and they're kind of funny: he does one thing, she one-ups him, he sulks, she takes a lover, he gives an interview, she gives a bigger interview, he releases a book, she releases a bigger book, his phone call gets recorded, her phone call gets recorded, he gives a party for camilla, she buys a hot dress. ETC ETC AD NAUSEUM. It made me laugh at first, but eventually you just start thinking of them as sad children, and then she dies, and the whole thing is just miserable.
Profile Image for Katie.
21 reviews13 followers
May 16, 2010
I tried to read this book, but couldn't bring myself to finish it. The (completely unsubstantiated) sentences that broke the camel's back?

Women who love horses usually love sex. It is no accident that, for girls, the onset of puberty is often marked by an obsession with horseflesh.
89 reviews7 followers
September 11, 2007
Why? Because someone left it at my house and because I just watched that movie "The Queen". The collective force of these two circumstances forced me to pick up the book and read it.

The book was okay. It's a pretty thorough examination of the Diana phenomenon, and it's well enough written for something of this sort, but in the end, it's just glorified celebrity gossip. The book tries hard to make us see that how the British feel about the monarchy is an important. I guess it is...to the British. Just not so much to me.

I enjoy celebrity gossip -- glorified and otherwise, but it was a struggle to finish reading the book because I just didn't care enough about the subject.

And, oh yeah, the British class system sucks.
Profile Image for Lois .
1,982 reviews525 followers
November 21, 2020
I liked this
It's gossip and largely unsubstantiated or already reported gossip.
This books takes a very jaded view of Princess Di. She doesn't seem to dislike her so much as see her in a less 'royal' light.
I like the authors tone with the royals🤷🏾‍♀️
Profile Image for Evelyn.
340 reviews15 followers
Read
March 25, 2021
As someone else posted, too much detail yet not enough detail. Brown has a way of making declarations without backing them up, a lack of openness in her world view and a lack of compassion in how she views the assembled players here. She seems to dislike everyone, and I guess you can make a case for that-- but the snarky comments felt sloppy and self-indulgent. Still I could not put it down-- a guilty pleasure escape hatch over yet another pandemic weekend.
6 reviews
April 9, 2008
In my view Diana was an unsympathetic manipulator. I found myself feeling depressed when I read this book because she decided to live her life as a victim. Pitiful person.
Profile Image for Savannah Stapley.
140 reviews1 follower
March 25, 2021
What an incredible and profound effect this woman had on the world. She was so human and had so many faults/weaknesses; she just wanted to be loved and give love. Will never be able to relate to her on a royal level, but many of us can relate to her struggle with not having basic emotional needs and emotional security met by those who we love the most.

I’ve always loved and admired Princess Diana, and this book helped paint a bigger picture of why she was the way she was and why she did the things she did. I felt the author did a GREAT job of removing bias from her writing. You could tell she loved Diana but didn’t hold back from highlighting the darker parts of the princess (we all have dark parts!)

I gained more insight into Diana’s childhood than I ever have. SO MUCH makes sense when we take the time to consider a person’s individual trauma and where they come from. This book helped me develop a level of empathy for almost everyone directly involved in Diana’s life, ESPECIALLY Diana herself. Had a hard time developing empathy for Prince Charles, through. I will always have big issues with him and how he chose to react to Diana’s instant fame and love from the people, among other things.

Delving into this book and the entire royal family during the time of Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s interview was an interesting experience. There were evident parallels I could see. Nobody will ever know what it’s truly like to be a part of the royal family unless you are a part of the royal family is what I’ve decided. I don’t know that Diana truly understood what she was as taking on when she married the Prince, how could she? But she handled it as well as she could with grace and love-even though the situation she was given was pretty sucky. She was 19 when she was married, and I know I definitely wouldn’t have had the emotional maturity to deal with all she was handed when I was 19.

This is the the longest review I’ve written haha but really so much learned from this woman, more than I have before. She was ahead of her time in many ways, especially in loving ALL people-no matter where they come from, what they look like, who they choose to love, what choices they’ve made, etc... We could all be a little more like that.
Profile Image for Nancy Loe.
Author 8 books45 followers
August 21, 2017
Mock me if you will, but this is a fair-minded look at the phenomenon that is Diana, Princess of Wales. I've read (far too many) of the biographies, both pro- and anti-Diana, and Brown offers information that's new to me and fresh insights.
Profile Image for Graceann.
1,167 reviews
August 21, 2017
As readable and enjoyable as the occasional bit of literary trash may be, I make no mistake regarding the fact that that's what I was reading when I read The Diana Chronicles. Sarah Bradford is a biographer and, to date, she owns the bragging rights to the definitive book on Diana, Princess of Wales. Tina Brown has gone to previously-published books, magazine articles, and interviews with more than 200 people for her own take on the complicated Princess, her reluctant husband, and the woman who made it "quite crowded" in their marriage. Ms. Brown might be remembered for doing a tasteless Newsweek issue in July 2011 "reimagining" Diana at what would have been her 50th birthday, photoshopping wrinkles on her face and an iPhone in her hand. If you go into reading The Diana Chronicles with that in mind, you'll have an idea of what you're going to get.

The Diana Chronicles does have some value beyond the prurient. The snapshot view of the class differences in Britain is invaluable, and explains why people move in certain circles with very little overlap. Beyond that, however, there are significant lapses in taste which are (I am ashamed to admit) entertaining to read, but truly irrelevant. If you want to know what Prince Charles wants said to him during his most private of romantic moments, you'll find it here.

The Princess of Wales had plans and gifts to offer, and would have been a marvelous ambassador in her "second act," if it hadn't been for a Paris tunnel and not wearing a seatbelt. That is the sadness in her story, more than anything else. That so much paper continues to be devoted to her is quite telling as to how much many of us still care about her story.
Profile Image for Neha.
35 reviews12 followers
March 29, 2020
WTF was this book? I'm ashamed I read it, although I did appreciate this gem of a quote: "Women who love horses usually love sex."
Profile Image for Julie Sotelo.
139 reviews10 followers
February 2, 2023
This 800 pager really killed my reading challenge progress for January 😅
Profile Image for Susan.
Author 6 books79 followers
March 18, 2014
You could call me a Princess Diana fan — a huge one, actually. I have been fascinated with her since she appeared on the scene when I was in high school. When she died, friends called me to check on how *I* was doing. I still think of her often. So, when I decided to read a book about her, it wasn’t with the expectation of really learning anything new. I really just wanted to kind of re-live her life again through words, and possibly see some big-picture themes to help make sense of a woman who was truly larger than life.


The Diana Chronicles were good for that. This is a long book, at nearly 500 pages. Author Tina Brown put a huge amount of time and effort into it, with research and interviews. Read it, and you’ll understand Diana’s entire life, as well as its context within British society and British royalty too.

It’s hard to sum up such a lengthy book, and a life that touched so many (mostly positively, but some negatively). Here are some thoughts:

Even though Diana appeared to be a hard-to-ignore personality all her life (one teacher is quoted as calling her “the most manipulative little girl” she’d ever known), her sad childhood no doubt played a role in her personal difficulties in adulthood. She was the third girl born to a family that desperately wanted/needed a son for inheritance reasons. When she and her younger brother Charles were small, their mother left her unfulfilling marriage, leaving the children with her husband. This was devastating to Diana.
Diana did appear to be shy in many instances growing up and in her teen years, yet people in the establishment underestimated her. Camilla Parker-Bowles apparently gave her blessing to Charles on marrying Diana, thinking that “meek” little Diana surely wouldn’t mind if Camilla and Charles continued their affair after Charles and Diana married. “The Mouse that Roared” surprised her, and many of the other royals as well, who’d seen Diana as moldable and sweet. Diana became more and more emboldened as she saw the “Diana effect” she had on the public. Her self-esteem grew with every visit to a place where she could meet with others in pain and help them by sharing her own pain. Said Christina Lamb of the Sunday Times: “She had something I’d only ever seen before from Nelson Mandela. A kind of aura that made people want to be with her and a completely natural, straight-from-the-heart sense of how to bring hope to those who seemed to have little to live for.”


It’s truly a shame Charles and Diana could not have worked well together, and Diana even said as much once, lamenting that they would have made “such a great team.” However, Charles was deeply hurt at the way Diana eclipsed him from the time they were married. He was used to being the center of attention, yet once Diana came along no one seemed interested in him or his ideas. “Charles was the Prince his friends know: a slightly scatty, well-meaning chap with a self-deprecating sense of humor and some oddball ideas.” Diana, in turn, was devastated that the prince charming she had so idolized seemed largely uninterested in her: “She became nutty because Prince Charles didn’t love her, simple as that,” said David Puttnam, movie producer and Labour peer.
As their relationship deteriorated, Diana and Charles began “one-upping” each other in various ways. Diana cooperated with Andrew Morton to write a tell-all book that spilled basically every little secret of her 10-year marriage. As its publication got closer, she realized how major this would be to the royal family and she regretted it, but it was too late. There was no way she would be able to remain in the good graces of the Royal Family, and the couple separated (“In the Prince’s world, infidelity, especially his own, was one of marriage’s forgivable crimes. Talking to the press was not”). “The Morton book had been a Molotov cocktail hurled at the House of Windsor. Now the Palace was taking its revenge with a thousand cuts of quotidian smallness.”
I was shocked by some of Charles and Diana’s behavior. Several instances are described when they would have a fight and throw things — once, for instance, they were at someone else’s house and Charles threw (and broke) a priceless antique vase. Maybe it’s just my personality, but I can’t imagine #1: throwing something/anything! and #2: throwing and breaking a priceless item of someone else’s. It just seems so … unrefined. I would think that members of royalty would have more self-restraint, but apparently not.
While my sympathy for Diana was largely reinforced while reading this book, there’s no denying she could be quite a nasty person. She became totally unpredictable as her marriage unraveled especially, freezing out servant after servant and friend after friend for perceived minor offenses. For instance, she became upset at the Andrew Morton book’s fallout and stopped talking to him — even though the book had been her idea to begin with. A particularly cruel bit tells of her cruelness to her stepmother, Raine. None of the Spencer children had liked Raine, whom their father married after their parents divorced. Most praised Raine for helping Earl Spencer recover from a major stroke (remember how frail he looked accompanying Diana down the aisle on her wedding day?). Yet when Spencer died, Diana and her brother Charles headed to their ancestral home to throw Raine out, before the earl was even buried. Raine packed her clothes in suitcases which Diana decided were Spencer family property, so she ordered the clothes unpacked and put into garbage bags — which Charles Spencer then kicked down the stairs. As I say — the Spencers definitely come across as a family you don’t want to get on the wrong side of (remember Charles Spencer’s famously “naughty” talk at Diana’s funeral?).


As I read about Diana’s life and personality, I couldn’t help feeling that her tragic end really seemed almost a foregone conclusion. Throughout life, she seemed to push the envelope at every opportunity, never able to leave well enough alone. After her divorce, she seemed to chase after man after unavailable man: “It is one of the ironies of Diana’s life that she was always searching to replace her own dysfunctional family with one that didn’t want her.” It almost seemed inconsistent with her personality to fade away into obscurity and die of old age. Just as her life had been, her death was a huge global event, covered in its every tawdry detail. I was brought to tears all over again as I read about the accident itself: “Just as in life, she had sustained injuries that showed nothing on the surface.” I also remembered again the hopelessness I felt watching her funeral. Often when someone dies, I have the consolation that they have moved on to heaven. But I don’t know that Diana was a believer, and I remember nothing of that type of conversation was mentioned at all in the service (yeah, I know, it was British and the British don’t normally talk about such things — but still).

I really enjoyed “The Diana Chronicles” and recommend it to anyone wanting a detailed story of the tragic Princess’s life.
Profile Image for Jamele (BookswithJams).
1,462 reviews73 followers
March 19, 2023
I remember watching Diana’s wedding as a kid and being obsessed, and it began my following of the Royals, specifically her, way back then. When she died, I went to my friend’s house and we were just devastated, it was incredibly sad and unbelievable. I listened to this one via audio and while it was a bit long, I could not stop until I was done. It might not be anything new if you watch The Crown or keep up with the Royals but I found it to be an informative and engrossing read (it is written by a gossip mag editor after all) and highly recommend it.

Thank you to Doubleday Books for the gifted copy to review.
Profile Image for Taher Bellah.
Author 17 books433 followers
June 2, 2022
One of the best books I have ever read. A gripping drama that offers insight not just on Diana's life but on the wicked nature of the human condition.
Profile Image for Literary Redhead.
1,951 reviews544 followers
July 23, 2022
A gripping look at the People's Princess as only Tina Brown can do. Highly recommended for Royal junkies!
Profile Image for Patrick.
112 reviews9 followers
September 26, 2022
During the weeks it took me to read this book, I would sometimes ask myself, "Why am I reading this?"

On the one hand, it's because a 4-part podcast about Diana that was recommended to me used this book as one of its primary sources. And a good friend then told me it was worth the read. And then Tina Brown's publishing of The Palace Papers this summer reminded me I still needed to read her first book about the royals.

But it was also about a lingering curiosity of who Diana was. I was 9 when she died, and although I knew she was "someone", the tumult of her marriage, divorce, and rise to superstardom was beyond me. I had a sense that she was a symbol for everything that changed - not only within the monarchy, but within our very society itself - in the late 80s and early 90s.

Diana's life could not have been better written as the dark, tragic, fairy tale Brown's exhaustive research and interviews produce here. And it's a fair telling, too - Diana had a wicked side, and Brown doesn't shy away from sharing it.

When I finished, I found myself surprisingly sad (did I really think it would end differently this time?). I felt like I'd gotten to know Diana over the course of reading this book, and I felt a longing for her when it was over. Knowing the individual details of her life is one thing; reading them as a single experience is quite another. It felt like reading one long Vanity Fair piece, which was a dream for me.

But I don't want that to be confused with taking joy from a woman's suffering. To know Diana's story is to know the lengths some will go to extinguish a woman's bright, shining light and to learn from a woman who refused to let that happen. One of the saddest anecdotes from the book was an exchange she had with her brother-in-law in August 1996 on the day her divorce was finalized and almost a year before her death. He said that the end of her marriage was "a tragic end to a wonderful story." She replied, “Oh, no. It's the beginning of a new chapter."

It's one of the great tragedies of our time that we weren't able to experience that chapter - oh, how our world might be different today.
670 reviews47 followers
May 24, 2020
It’s riveting, if you are a celebrity junkie like me. Brown in her trademark style that mixes gossip, opinion and true-blue reporting, paints a story of a potential fairy tale gone horribly wrong. In so many ways, the story of Diana is a story of how not to live a life - no real education, marrying for an idea of a prince, living through a bad marriage in the public eye, depressed and unhappy for the most part, never being able to escape the price of fame. Brown’s Diana is troubled, unstable, manipulative and very self-absorbed. Yet there is incredible courage in her as she breaks with centuries of tradition. She forms deep connections with people and causes. She is a good mother. It’s an absorbing character study, almost Shakespearean in its tragic scale. A truly compelling read. The idea of the monarchy though... it remains inexplicable to me.
Profile Image for Rianne.
19 reviews
September 16, 2019
I haven’t finished this book, but making it to page 265 was such a struggle that I feel like I deserve a win so I’m logging it as finished regardless.

I eventually gave up when the author imagined what Diana “might have responded” to an insult thrown at her by Charles, because if I’d wanted to read imagined responses I’d probably have picked up some historical fiction.

I’m sure Tina Brown did an absolute power of research for this book and there’s no taking away from the thoroughness with which she tracks the events of Diana’s life, but as someone with little to no previous knowledge of the British monarchy and who wasn’t alive in the 80s to remember the many paparazzi photos Brown chucks in a reference to every second page, this was definitely not the book for me.
Profile Image for Rashmi Tiwari.
134 reviews3 followers
February 21, 2015
Continuing the Trashy Royal Snowed In Boston For The Rest Of My Life book tour. This was WAY too long and ultimately left me feeling like Princess Diana (who I knew very little about prior to reading this) was a spoiled, sort of psychotic, desperate woman who verged on shamefully illiterate (she kept a list of "hard to spell" words on her desk). I get the sense that I was supposed to witness her personal growth or something but she read as the same vapid waste of space from beginning to end. Thanks for that awesome portrait, Tina Brown?

Don't bother unless you've literally got nothing better to do and nowhere possible to go.
Profile Image for Holly Fairall (birdbrainbooks).
616 reviews49 followers
May 9, 2023
Diana’s story is one of a person who became a globally beloved icon—really through the power and bravery of being vulnerable. Her ability to show genuine care and her consistent tendency to align herself with the powerless rather than the powerful, even from her own position of power, is what allowed her to transcend the British Royal Family in her popularity (even to this day).

She was not a perfect person, and she benefited from a very imperfect institution, but managed to remain relatable and deeply sympathetic as she herself struggled with rejection, disillusionment, disordered eating, endless harassment by paparazzi, and ultimately the tragic death that has enshrined her in a kind of sainthood.

I know this story well by now but was particularly struck by how she was so very alone at the end; her longtime chauffeur and butler were the ones who first arrived to get her body from Paris.

I feel deep personal investment in her story, partly because of how much she reflects the memory of my own mother, and partly because it’s a simply endlessly fascinating and tragic story.

As British royal drama continues to this day through the lives of all those impacted by her life and her loss, I can’t help but find this context enlightening and compelling—especially in the wake of Charles and Camilla’s coronation.

As for Tina Brown, her writing takes me back to reading gossip tabloids as a teenager during the summer—I take what she reports with a grain of salt but really enjoy her acerbic writing overall.
Profile Image for Marina MS.
124 reviews16 followers
March 6, 2021
Gossipy, glossy magazine style. I had to steel myself occasionally to continue, when it got too common or too repetitive. It is written with panache though. I learned a lot about the Royals (I haven’t followed them before, but got interested after watching Netflix’s Crown). In the end I liked Charles more than Diana, reversing the feeling I had after Crown.
Profile Image for Jen.
209 reviews
November 21, 2022
Obviously had to finish this before I started the new season of The Crown. Tina Brown is a journalistic legend and the way she drops in some seriously scandalous information is unparalleled. I listened via audiobook and only wish that Tina was the narrator, and that I got photos accompanying the text like The Palace Papers.
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