Customer Reviews

Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I enjoyed reading this book, and found it to be fascinating. However, I have since read "A Royal Duty" by Paul Burrell. Some of the statments made in these two books are conflicting. In "Diana, Her True Story", it is made to sound like Princess Diane was always at odds with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. In "A Royal Duty", Paul Burrell tells a different story. He maintains Diana had a loving and close relationship with the Queen and Prince Phillip right up until the time she died. It is a very interesting book, but after reading almost everything written about Princess Diana, there are so many different views and stories, it is hard to know which to believe.

This book has been called "the longest divorce petition in history", and when you read it, you would have to agree with that statement. But what you have to remember is that at the time when Diana agreed to co-operate with Mr Morton, she was feeling sad, lonely, and unhappy, but she was never allowed to express that publicly. She was unhappy with her life, unhappy with her royal image, and most of all, unhappy with her marriage, yet she couldn't do what anyone else in that situation would be able to do - she couldn't visit a local solicitor and obtain a divorce. Poor woman, she couldn't even go to the gym without being followed by a throng of photographers.

When this book was published in 1992, it was dismissed by the establishemnt as being a pack of lies, but ultimately they, and the public too, discovered that it wasn't when Charles admitted his infidelity with the redoubtably ugly and gauche Camilla Parker Bowles, and when, in her astonishingly frank Panorama interview, Diana candidly shared the harrowing details of her eating disorder, bulimia.

This book succeeded on many levels. It certainly exposed the shocking truth about the Royal marriage and portrayed the Royal Family, for the first time ever, not as cherished icons but as ordinary individuals with more than their share of character defects (and this means Diana, too!) But it ultimately succeeded in its portrayal of an immature twenty year old girl, who won the hearts of the world when she kissed the Prince, only to have him become a toad, to the beautiful, compassionate symbol of kindness, caring, and humanity that she was when she was so tragically snatched away from the world. For it was the publication of this book that enabled Diana to seek a new life for herself, and in doing so she developed the character traits that enabled us all to fall in love her, this time more completely, again and again and again.

This book was an astonishing biography about Princess Diana. It gave you insight into the life that she led both privately and in the public eye. The Princess of Wales had a good heart, even from the time she was young. She enjoyed being with people and helping those in need. Diana was also a very generous person and she liked to have fun and laugh. She seemed happy, but underneath she was suffering from depression. I was shocked at what I learned while reading the book. Whenever I pictured The Princess of Wales,I always thought of her smile, but she was really hurting inside. It all started from the disappointment that her parents expressed when she wasn't born a boy, to her bulimia nervosa, and her numerous suicide attempts. Not to mention, she was constantly being criticized by her own husband, family, and the media. I can't imagine being put in the position she was without any words of encouragement or guidance. The author did an excellent job giving examples and supporting his stories with quotes from friends, family, and the Princess herself. His style of writing gave you a greater understanding of what she was going through with very detailed stories and descriptions. There were also pictures throughout the book showing the Princess with her children and doing the things she loved. If you are at all interested in learning about the life of Princess Diana, this book is well worth reading, though at times it can be difficult to follow. It gives you a greater comprehension of her life as well as greater respect for her as a person.

I sort of liked this book more than some of the other biographies I've read before. To be honest before I read this book I have NEVER heard of Princess Diana. While I read this book I felt sympathetic toward her because she had a real hard life after she became involved with the Prince Charles. Most of the sympathy went into the fact that she received pretty much no help from any one except her mother and father but no help whatsoever from the royal family and was expected to know everything she was supposed to. She had bulimia and no experience at all at being royalty and the somewhat rude expectations from the royal position and the responsibilities that came with it. Not only that but the prince that proposed to Diana (the prince that became her husband) was cheating on her with another woman and everyone was trying to hide the fact that he was seeing the other woman. Along with that problem came the fact that her husband cared more about the other woman than Diane even though she was his wife. An example was that when Diana was still engaged to the prince and the paparazzi were following her and the other woman the prince was seeing, Diana was being followed by like 36 paparazzi the other woman was only being followed by 4 people the prince was sympathetic towards the other woman and didn't even care about the hardships Diana was going through.
So overall I would give the book a good rating since it had a personal interview with Diana and used her own words rather than some facts that could very well be just rumors that were spread.
S.Brock

For us admirers of the late Princess of Wales, this book is certainly like a Bible. It is very thourough and painfully eye-opening, especially as it reveals the story of a simple young girl and her very rude - sometimes cruel - awakening to a life where the heart of gold is really as cold as ice. My hat is off to both the Princess and Mr. Morton for having been so courageous.

Diana's authorized, however covertly, biography finally tells the truth about this remarkable human being from her own lips. Morton's frank, honest telling of the grief behind the glitz shows us a very vulnerable woman who isn't all that different from the rest of us. Diana, young girl, schoolteacher, princess, wife and mother should have been embraced by the royal family instead of frozen out. One can only hope that her sons will follow the trail she fought so hard to blaze for them and live real lives instead of rigid imitations. The world is a poorer place without the people's princess.

I primarily wanted to read it becasue when Princess Diana died, people all around the world mourned for her. She touched the lives of so many people in lots of different ways. Not only did I think it was interesting because of that reason, but also because she had many struggles and hardships to overcome. I found that encouraging. Also, Diana was of the royal family, which added to my curiosity. Lastly, it was very interesting to discover how misleading appearances, statuses, titles, clothes, money, jewelry, and other materialistic things are. These things don't make lives perfect and carefree. Sometimes being a normal, ordinary, plain person isn't that bad after all. Katie Cannada

Now that she is gone and the word is out that Diana did cooperate with the telling of this story the book is all the more interesting. Having never read a book about Diana, I found this to be very informative and tragic. Diana appears to have been a very misunderstood and lonely person, caught up in circumstances she had no control over. You just want to reach into her life and comfort her.

Prince Charles was clearly the villain in the relationship as much of his behavior has been confirmed in the media since her death. His refusal to discontinue his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles speaks for itself. How anyone could pick CPB over Diana in unfathomable. What was never addressed was what Andrew Parker-Bowles thought about the relationship between his wife and Prince Charles. Both Camilla and Charles denied there was a relationship. What a crock.

The book provides a great back-story to Princess Diana's untimely death. But there is no prediction about an impending car accident as Diana's Butler Paul Burrell now claims. However she did make a haunting prediction in 1992 on page 220 that did come true, "I am performing a duty as the Princess of Wales ... but I don't see it any longer than 15 years."

A good introduction to someone who knows nothing about Diana.

I have read all of Andrew Morton's books on the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. I believe them to be the most accurate accounts of the real story surrounding her life. The fact that he had her approval meant to me that his books were not meant to hurt her but to tell the real truth. They are a tribute to her and her sons. Had Prince Charles not betrayed her from the start, she would be alive today and would have made him a good queen and queen mother to his son, the future king of England. In searching for the happiness she was denied, she met with trajedy, which could have all been avoided had her life not been devastated by him. My heart was saddened as I read this particular book, thinking all the while if Prince Charles will ever accept any responsibility for her death. It was a wonderful book, I highly recommend it.

If you need to read just ONE book rehardsing Princess Diana... This is THE one you must pick!

You will be delighted with all the details and will admire even more this wonderful person.

A book you MUST have on your shelves!