Customer Reviews

Diana--The Last Word

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This makes two Diana books written by Simone Simmons, the first "Diana The Secret years" cowritten by Susan Hill. This tie around the cowriter is Ingrid Seward, the editor of Majesty magazine and there is a decided difference in the two books. This one is even more "I"(Simmons promoting) than the first yet covers very much the same ground. Ms Simmons (or is it Seward, since the tone is different?) has written yet another biography of the late Princess, in her forward writing that Diana wanted her to write a book. That may be so but the Princess probably meant just ONE.
Most of the stuff here you've read before, several times. This book takes a meaner tone in putting down James Hewitt, puts the Oliver Hoare affair on him -not Diana (which is unusual in these books),lots of ripping people. I give the Princess more credit for intelligence and cooking skills than I think Simmons does although I think she's probably at least close to right in Diana's reported over dependence on various therapists (Simmons was one of the few that wasn't a quack it seems). Paul Burrell gets bashed almost as much as Hewitt, Simmons seems to want us to believe that no one could have been as close to the Princess as she was. Seems like no one is spared judgement, not the Spencer family, not the Royal family.
There's so much "I told Diana, she told me", the book is too self promotional for my tastes. That JFK jr. bit for an opener served what purpose?, must've been to get people to buy the book because none of Diana's friends think there's any truth to it. I myself doubt that it ever happened because no one else, friend or foe of the Princess, has ever come out with that one. The book does have bits here and there that must be true (not just the historically verifiable items)and of historical interest but for me it was spoiled by a surplus of rather blatant self promotion- the book is an obvious effort at making money off a dead woman's memory.

I don't mind at all that this book is tabloid-ish; Simmons gives names and details of events that other Diana biographers have merely danced around. And besides, Simmons knew Diana well by all accounts. But the writing absolutely reeks and is poorly edited. Marginal grammar and wretched sentence structure abound, paragraphs end with a points that are never explained, and value judgments are dropped throughout what otherwise appear to be factual narrations. The author makes little distinction between what she knows and what she suspects. Also, there are tangential explanations of things that have little to do with Diana, like the author's "healing" career. If you can bear the writing and skip over the diversions, there is interesting info inside. Is it true? Anyone's guess.

I haven't read too many biographies on Diana (I am just starting) but I found this book provided very little information I had not already known. I felt Simone Simmons was too self promoting in this book and seemed to try too hard to throw in the "she only told me" phrases. She also seemed especially competetive with Burrell's biography adding lines to explain why Paul Burrell wouldn't have known something. The photographs provided in the book were curiously all from previously published sources. Where is the personal connection she is claiming to have shared so strongly? It appears to me, Simone Simmons was just one of Diana's hired help and not the "best friend" she claims to be.

Nearly a decade after her death, Diana's so-called friends continue to crank out exposés in an attempt to milk the cash cow. This book is just another piece of tabloid garbage in a long lineup of trashy books written by people who claim to have cared about the princess but have raced to sell her out. The fact that this is Simone Simmons' second tell-all book about Diana marks her as one of the bigger pariahs. Simmons claims that her reason for writing the book is because Diana wanted her to "tell it like it is." She couldn't get it right the first time around?

I've read several Diana books and this one reveals absolutely nothing new. There are a few claims we may not have heard before but nothing that can be substantiated. I lost track of all the times Simmons makes some far-out claim and then pleads..."I have absolutely no way to prove this, but it's true. You can trust me because I am PSYCHIC!" It's terribly convenient that most of her more controversial revelations involve people who have either passed away and will not challenge her statements or who are famously closed-mouthed about Diana. Simmons doesn't even get her facts straight, it's Carolyn Bessette, not Bassette.

Lack of any proof, stock photos instead of personal ones, poor fact-checking, and endless self-promotion--this woman is nothing more than a leech. Don't support her kind by buying this book. I'm glad I got mine from the library.

I agree with Famous Jano. Did the other reviewers read the book??? Sure...the book is fluff and not an academia read. What did we Diana watchers expect?? However, it shows Diana as an English Rose ~with~ her thorns. A more well-rounded interpretation.

I think to get a full objective look at the "real" Diana one needs to read all the books from her inner circle (Simone Simmons, Paul Burrell, Patrick Jephson, Andrew Norton, etc.) and then one can get a clearer picture of Diana.

My opinion is that Diana is part of history now and it is a good idea that Diana biographers are getting their words down in print. Sadly, in a 100 years our "People's Princess" might be a blip on the radar screen and most of the historical information about her may come from the inner circle, since the Royal Family, as of right now, does not look in a hurry to write a tell-all book about "their" Diana.

What I get from Simone Simmons' Diana is someone I sure would have liked to have had lunch with!!

Save time AND money - do NOT buy this book. Simone must be broke. I've read several Diana books in the past. There is no reason for this book to exist. Nothing new that can be verified.

The minute I saw that error..I stopped reading the book! Prince William is a Cancer..NOT Gemini!! This author was no friend of the late princess..IF what the author has revealed..(if true) the princess would not have wanted it published! Trash this book!

The saddest thing about this book is that I have come to understand that Diana had no friends. This witchy wannabe cashes in on her "friendship." One friend- one true friend in this young woman's life coulds have made a difference. She was walled-in and an a victim of the leeches that surrounded her. This book goes in the trash heap. I don't believe a word one.

When I heard the hub bub in the media about this ; what I perceived to be, gossipy tome, I was turned off. However, I sat down with it in a bookstore and realized that I needed to bring it home and read every "scene" I like many was turned off by the somewhat salacious opener- Di made a confession that she was seduced animalistically by the dashing member of America's royalty, young JFK junior, in a hotel room. I find it credible that Diana told this story to the author, but there is no other reason to insert this story at the beginning of the book ( outside of chronology) than to sensationalize this aberration to seduce the reader. It brings down the rest of the book just slightly in terms of sensitivity.
That minor critisism aside, I found the psychic healer author rather practical and down to earth, and admired her tell it like it is approach. I am sure that Diana did not have many friends who were not yes-men, sycophants and obsessive idolizers. Therefore, I sense that much of the stuff in the book is true and gives insight to the one Icon we know as Lady Di.
Nothing in this book murmers that the car "accident" was planned, yet I couldn't find a reference to the word accident, either. This author also confirms my belief that Diana and Dodi were not to wed, he was a playboy and a drug user sadly; lazy but sweet, certainly not what Diana would choose for a mate for long term.
I had a remarkably good time with this book, I would recommend it to Diana fans.

Simone Simmons claims to have been Princess Diana's closest friend, talking to her for as much as eight hours a day, every day, in the last several years of her life. They allegedly met when Di was seeking yet another "alternative" cure to her emotional and perceived physical ailments at a London clinic where Simmons was a contractor performing "faith healing." Simmons' ministrations finally "cured" the Princess, she claims, and she in turn taught Di her arts. According to Simmons, Di then launched herself around the world on public and private missions to offer her healing skills with fantastic success, also according to Simmons.

(I repeatedly make these attributions to make sure you know I take all of this with a bucket of salt. I have some familiarity with so-called faith healing and cannot discount it entirely, but I know nothing of Simmons' abilities.)

Simmons rehashes many familiar (and perhaps some new - I don't follow the Di saga religiously) tales of nasty Royal behavior, from the Queen Mother to little-known courtiers, and we learn they can be just as petty and hurtful as the rest of us - not exactly news after all of these years.

The biggest problem with this book is that while on one hand Simmons lavishly praises Di's abilities to connect with average people and to be compassionate - for example, lending her prestige and credibility to the anti-land mine movement, boosting it immeasurably - on the other hand she offers minute details of a insecure, often thoughtless, vain, immature, demanding, needy, promiscuous, spendthrift, somewhat lazy girl/woman whose attitude towards her beloved children inspires confusion: Was she an attentive mother or a mother who played with the tots when they were delivered by the nanny?

Di did, of course, have a very difficult childhood, which explains many of her emotional problems. But as the full list of her ills are fully related by her so-called friend one wonders who vetted her for marriage to the future King of England.

As Simmons (or her ghostwriter) is not that good of a writer, the book is a bit of a slog and this knife beneath the velvet glove doesn't add much charm to what might have been an incisive biography, given Simmons' knowledge.