Diana: The Last Year [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Donald Spoto (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 1997

2 cassettes / 3 hours
Read by Claire Bloom

In the first hours after the news of Diana's death shocked the world, major media outlets from CNN to NBC turned to Donald Spoto for help in articulating the meaning of the tragedy and understanding its effect on the British monarchy, the worldwide public who admired and loved her, and, most important, her own family.

Now, in Diana: The Last Year, Spoto tells for the first time the complete story of a woman both driven by a philanthropic desire to relieve suffering and change the world for the better, and determined to make up for a youth taken from her, at the age of 19, when she entered the House of Windsor.

Diana's final year was in many ways the most fascinating and insightful of her life. It was a turbulent period in which she formally severed her marriage to the heir to the British throne, fell in love with Dodi al-Fayed, and truly began to come into her own after years of personal adversity. Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, Diana in her last year was recreating her Àpublic and private self.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Donald Spoto is a career biographer who's received critical accolades for his works on Tennessee Williams, Laurence Olivier, and Alfred Hitchcock, among others. All the stranger, then, to find him the author of Diana: The Last Year, written as a postscript to his The Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor, which he was working on at the time of Diana's death. Even readers who are comfortable with the princess's unofficial canonization may be taken aback by Spoto's book, which gilds England's Rose several layers thick in adulation and makes liberal use of quotations from the likes of Virgil, Swift, and Thomas More. Granted, the final year of Diana's life was one marked by an exhaustive schedule of appearances and speeches on behalf of charities and charitable causes (AIDS, the homeless, and a move to ban land mines, to name but a few), but seldom will you see the supposed impassivity of a noted biographer so completely abandoned in a book that features a soaring paean on its subject on nearly every page.

When he's not praising Diana, Spoto spends his time cataloging the cold, irrelevant, and spiteful character of the royal family, which is supposed to act as the necessary darkness to all of Diana's saintly light. At least they're given something approaching human attributes, unlike the elevated, but decidedly unrecognizable, subject of this book. --John Longenbaugh --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"What's interesting about this [audiobook] is what it's not:  This isn't another glib celebrity journalist feeding off the tragic death of the 'People's Princess.'  It's a surprisingly serious look at the tumultuous last year in the life of Diana." - Dallas Morning News

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio (November 11, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375402578
• ISBN-13: 978-0375402579
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,744,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows her the way she was, August 15, 2000

By 

Becky - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diana: The Last Year (Paperback)

While Andrew Morton's "Diana Her True Story" and "Diana Her New Life" chronicled the Princess's unhappy life in the Royal Family prior to her 1996 divorce from Dumbo Ears (sorry, Prince Charles), Donald Spoto's account describes her life post divorce until her tragic and untimely death. In the process he highlights all the aspects of her character, both good and bad, that caused the world to fall in love with her forever. This is a great tribute to you, dear Diana. May you rest eternally in peace.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows all.... but with a quality of mercy, April 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Diana: The Last Year (Paperback)

One gets the full story from Soto. You don't get every salvo from the war of the Wales.But does one need that? Important facts, such as Diana's understanding that the 10,000 bouquet from the public, was as important as her first, are there.

I felt he understood Diana and her impact on people better than most. It' has a tenderness that's vital when considering her life.

The book I recommend when asked about Diana books.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF THE BEST DIANA BOOKS AVAILABLE!!!, June 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Diana: The Last Year (Audio Cassette)

I have been reading books on Princess Diana since 1981 and this has to be one of the best. Diana, The last year has to be one of the better written books on Diana. It is worth the money and is the type of book that you will go back to time and time again