I was astounded at some of the details of Princess Diana's life I learned through this book. Unfortunately, I also had to slog through a bit of the reporters and papperazzi detail to keep interested. I read this for a bookclub or I think I would have put it aside. ( )

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 ( )

Audiobook read by Rosalyn Landor

Published in 2007 and written by one of her close friends, this (very long) biography dives into the details of Princess Diana's life, from her ancestors to her funeral.

I decided to read this now (well.... in January) because of the big to-do about Prince Harry and Meghan (kind of) leaving the royal family. (Remember back in January when things like that counted as news??) I found myself wishing I knew more truth about Princess Diana. I remember her death when I was 9 but I don't really know much about her life before that. I had a vague sense that she was treated pretty badly by the royal family and surprise! I was right. The book provides a lot of context for what Diana's early life was like that would otherwise be completely incomprehensible to me. For example, it was very cool at the time for rich young people to have very trivial, low-paying jobs (like cleaning houses or walking dogs) because the fact that you could work hard and get paid almost nothing for it showed how much money your family had. While she was first dating Charles, Diana was a nanny for an American family living in England and they had zero idea who she was. Ah, life before 24/7 news media.

One must obviously be very careful when selecting a book to read about such a big (and profitable) pop culture figure/event. The 90s were a golden age of cheap fan publications and "unauthorized biographies". The things I think make this a worthwhile pick are:
Firstly - It was published 10 years after Diana's death. It's obvious that Brown was not trying to capitalize on a recent event, and also a decade of hindsight really changed what the public knew about her life and death, and the way we view it.
Secondly - Tina Brown was Diana's close friend and had a view of her private life that many others don't, but she is also an award-winning journalist and editor of Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and creator of The Daily Beast. She's a highly-credentialed, very good writer.

In conclusion, I highly recommend reading books about events published 10 or more years after the fact, and if you're going to read a book about Princess Diana I recommend this one. And Rosalyn Landor is a good narrator. ( )

Writer was terribly biased. Didn't make it past the second chapter ( )

Disappointing. Generally like Tina Brown as a writer (and she had good articles in Vanity Fair ) ( )