Di and I [Hardcover]

Peter Lefcourt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 24, 1994

In a zany and outrageous novel about modern romance, the Princess of Wales falls in love with a Hollywood screenwriter and runs away to McDonald's, with Prince Charles in hot pursuit. By the author of The Dreyfus Affair. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this uproarious send-up of British pomp, Hollywood sleaze, royalmania and the institution of marriage, Lefcourt ( The Dreyfuss Affair ; The Deal ) takes readers behind closed doors with Princess Di and the Windsors. Leonard Schecter, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, is drafted to go to London and write a miniseries on "the real Diana," but his assignment changes from profession to passion when he meets the princess and, scandalously, dances with her at a Togolese embassy reception. Spontaneously, he tells her that he is writing an epic poem-- The Dianiad --in her honor. The two soon embark on a romance that has them sneaking all over the realm, one step ahead of the voracious media. Schecter, an all-American wiseass of Polish-Jewish extraction, soon appears at Ascot, Balmoral and Princess Margaret's private poetry reading even as the Windsors attempt to discourage his attentions to Diana and the press reports him luring her off to Hollywood and film stardom. But the couple's real adventure begins when they steal away from Spanish King Juan Carlos's private Bahamian island and go incognito (with princes Wills and Hal) as the Keats family, traveling across America in a minivan and settling in California to run a McDonald's. Lefcourt delivers laughs at every turn in his fast and witty first-person narrative, lampooning both high and tabloid culture with dead-on accuracy while deploying a winning yarn that is both a captivating romantic fantasy and a clever, backhanded homage to the American dream.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In his earlier The Deal (LJ 4/1/91), Lefcourt's maverick producer is advised to get the ball over the plate and keep it low. Now that same producer gives a rootless scriptwriter whose life is disintegrating the same advice. Happily, this cryptic chestnut of sports wisdom yields similarly hilarious results. The writer, already fantasizing about Princess Diana, agrees to pen a series about her for TV. Entranced by her charms after the briefest of meetings, he woos her with promises of an epic in rhyming verse. Di, who is besotted after the first couplet, packs up her tiara and her boys and slips away from their handlers to set off on a picaresque adventure along American backroads. Lefcourt deftly skewers the egregious shills and panderers of the celebrity stratum and those who aspire to that status. Himself an Emmy AwardR-winning screenwriter and producer, Lefcourt gives new meaning to "up close and personal" by thwacking royals and nonroyals alike with a vigor that even Punch and Judy would envy. A perfectly literary antidote to much of the tabloidese found in supermarkets and on television, this comedy belongs in most libraries.
Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (May 24, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679425837
• ISBN-13: 978-0679425830
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,159,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A royal giggle!!!, April 29, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Di and I (Paperback)

ATTENTION: All Diana Fans Want a royal giggle? If so, place your order for an out-of-print copy of this fictional account of Diana and the author's love affair and her escape from England. It is a riot - a jewel - a wonderful read. The author is fabulous at capturing the supporting characters' voices, not to mention Diana's. Whether you are at a poetry reading with Princess Margaret, bird watching with Prince Philip at Balmoral, dining with Fergie, playing tennis with the competitive King of Spain, or hobnobbing with Diana at embassy parties or Ascot, you will have a ball! If only it were true. Sigh. A really quite extraordinary book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In retrospect it is the saddest book I ever read, September 6, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Di and I (Hardcover)

I reread this book the day before her funeral, and can't help but wish it was a true story, not a fictional novel

4.0 out of 5 stars A Funny Story!, October 9, 2003

By 

H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Di and I (Hardcover)

Leonard Schecter, who describes himself as a Polish Jew, is an American who goes to England to gather information for a TV series on the real Princess Diana. She has already left Charles when the novel begins. As in every good novel something happens. In this instance Lennie and Di fall hopelessly in love. A stretch of the imagination? Maybe but why not. What transpires is deliciously funny. Leonard, along with Princess Di and her two sons, flees England for the U. S. Their flight will make you smile. We learn that Di reads both Danielle Steele and Jacqueline Susann and that Princess Margaret likes the poem "The Congo." We also meet Fergie and her un-named rich famous American lover, whose identity we can guess anyway. One of the funniest passages in this fun book is the account of Di and her sons' learning to speak "American." And you will never feel the same about a McDonald's again after reading this book.

I suspect that this little concoction suffered because of the later tragic death of Princess Diana although it should not have. The tale is told with a great deal of affection and good humor and is quite harmless. Certainly a book that makes you smile as much as this one does is good for you.