Customer Reviews

Diana (Diana Princess of Wales)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book was different from any othe Diana book I've ever read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author had some very good insights and some hilariously wicked comments on the royal family. She attacks the English upper classes and reveal them to be an outdated establishment that cause problems with their children. Diana was a victim of this. May she rest in peace.

Um...well, I finally finished this "different" book on the beloved Princess of Wales. Finally is the word to be used as I found this book to be a hard read. The author seems so full of anger and hatred that is barely disgused in her work. This woman's words are so biting and harsh! Yes, the way Diana was treated at the hands of her in-laws was at best dispicable, but for the love of Mike, every chapter and seemingly every page was sprinkled in this style of writing. I have tons of books on the subject, purchased way back in July of l981 up to the one that came in today's mail and I have to say that this was the least enjoyable one I've ever picked up. I see by other reviews written that I am in the minority here, but I have to call them as I see them! Plus there were many errors, dress designers were incorrect, pictures labeled wrong, timelines a little off. Nit-picky? Maybe, but I'm a believer in knowing your subject matter of which you write.

This book is partly a biography of Diana's life, with some color photographs, but mostly a commentary upon Diana's life in the context of the House of Windsor. The author is sympathetic to Diana's plight as an innocent girl who married for love, but found out too late that Prince Charles would not give up his mistress Camilla. The author severely castigates Prince Charles and Camilla, and the Queen and the entire House of Windsor, as callous hypocrites and morally bankrupt pretenders to the throne and the Church of England. The author concedes that Diana had some problems and weaknesses of her own, but overwhelmingly takes the side of Diana against the House of Windsor, and scathingly considers Prince Charles to be a third-rate character unworthy to be king. The author has a great way with words, sometimes angry, sometimes mocking, and sometimes wickedly funny, with a few obscenities interspersed, in her attacks upon Prince Charles and Camilla, and the House of Windsor, although sometimes written in a subtle way that would probably only be understood by someone very familiar with Diana's life and British history of the past twenty years. If the reader has a similar love for Diana, and a similar very low opinion of Prince Charles and Camilla and the House of Windsor, the book would probably be enjoyable to the reader.

Julie Burchill has spoken from her heart as she brings us this very personal love letter to and about the late Princess of Wales. Skewering the Royals and their 16 year reign of terror in the life of this young woman - Burchill's observations and insights should warm the heart and ease the sadness of anyone who admired or cared for Diana. The portraits drawn of the players in this tragedy are accurate and skillful. One comes away with a sense of righteous indignation at the petty and spiteful behavior of those who pretended to know, and moreover, be, better. Was Diana the Golden Girl she appeared to be - to a large extent what we saw, was indeed, what she was. As flawed as she was beautiful - Burchill is as honest about her shortcomings as she is her strengths. This is an intensely personal portrait of Diana by a writer who clearly adored her subject fiercely and thoroughly. We are shown the promises made and broken, the bad decisions and good intentions and the ineptness of a monarch and her court who should done more yet did little at all to care for the people closest to them. As simply a person she deserved better, as the mother of royal princes she deserved better - as the brightness that lit up the gloom of the House of Windsor she deserved better - Burchill reminds us she got nothing and worse. It may be that her destiny was to end in the car in the Alma Tunnel and that no force on earth could have stood in the path of her fate. Julie Burchill, in Diana, lets us believe, that her tragic end may not have been so inevitable - which makes the loss only sadder. For both its historical significance and its psychological insight, this is an important book.

Brilliant, angry, truthful, and full of love for Diana. Author nails the whole situation on the head, saying all you wish you had said. Those that know all one can know about Diana will learn something more here. A desert island book, the best book written or likely to be written about Diana.

I read Diana, by Julie Birchill, when I was vacationing in London. I was so thrilled to read Ms.Birchill's book, as it gave me an insight to Diana and her life that was just not available from any other royal biographer. Julie Birchill wove a marvelous trail of descriptives that held my interest throughout the book. This book was thought provoking and easily brought the reader through the most devasting of scenerios, soothing and shocking the reader at the same time. Words cannot describe my delight with this brilliant authors talent. M.J.Summers Clarion, Pennsylvania

An excellent read. DIANA is incisive,sympathetic, and gives the reader the most well-rounded description of The Queen, Prince Charles, and even Lady Fermoy's selfishness and coldness and how that stilted behavior affected this valiant young woman. No-one is spared the veil of illusion, yet at all times we feel for the beleagured young woman who had the best of intentions... The book shows us that glamour does not make up for love that is not forthcoming, and how valuable England's Rose truly was to all of us, and why. It is indeed a requiem, an "unfinished sympathy" to our revered Queen of Hearts. An accurate and worthwhile book.

IT MADE LITTLE DIFFERENCE THAT DIANNA WAS HERSELF OF NOBLE BIRTH - SHE WAS IN THE END - ONLY A WOMAN WHO HAD SERVED THE PURPOSE ROYALTY REQIRED OF HER. HER MISTAKE WAS THAT SHE BELIEVED IN, AND MARRIED FOR LOVE - SHE WAS NO LONGER NEEDED AND SHE WOULDN'T DISAPPEAR, SO SHE WAS SYSTEMATICALLY DESTROYED- THE AUTHOR TRACES DI'S DEMISE BY THE CLASS SYSTEM.

This is a unique Diana biography, for while it is humourous (and often outrageously rude about Charlie and Camilla et al) you can feel Burchill's anger, sorrow and sense of injustice bubbling away just under the surface throughout.

I remember that Julie Burchill always stuck up for Diana in her various newspaper and magazine columns throughout the eighties and early nineties so at least we know that this author isn't one of those (and there seem to be many) who have only become Diana admirers since August 31st 1997.

A refreshingly forthright book, then, and one that will horrify, to borrow one of its more fragrant phrases, `Windsor brown-nosers' everywhere.

Julie Burchill's DIANA was amazing. So insightful, it is the type of book that once you have finished it, you will wish it never ended. The format is great: a series of stand alone essays that explain it all: good and bad and why there was nothing that she could do which would make us all love her less. If you loved and admired Diana: please get this book.