Customer Reviews

The Queen & Di: The Untold Story

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book about the often complex relationship between the Queen and Princess Diana had a promising start with the author's account of her meeting with the Princess. However, it degenerates into an unrelenting catalog of Princess Diana's transgressions and rarely has a good word to say about the Princess. It rehashes some of the negativism expounded in Penny Junor's and Sally Bedell Smith's works. Seward agrees with Bedell Smith that Diana had Borderline Personality Disorder plus was the first to cheat in the royal marriage (providing sketchy evidence of this allegation). The list of Diana's alleged misdeeds include: pretending not to be home to her sister and father; not sleeping with Charles after Prince Harry's birth (testimony of Charles's associates); being a shrew to Charles, always shouting at him; being obsessed with Camilla Parker Bowles; dressing up like a police officer and going on the town with Sarah Ferguson; and competing with Charles. Seward cannot seem to find one good thing to say about the Princess and seems to blame her for much of the problems in the marriage. Incredibly, also, Seward implies that if Diana did not find out from Charles telling her that Camilla was a former flame, Diana's obsession and jealousy could have been avoided. Seward ignores the evidence about the Charles-Camilla association that Diana was able to figure out for herself (e.g. Camilla's enduring presence during the engagement and her picture falling out of Charles' engagement book during the royal honeymoon). Strangely, the author does not condemn Camilla, a married woman for much of the time she was involved with the Prince, for her transgressions. Queen Elizabeth II is depicted in a much better light as a woman who is a dedicated ruler, yet human as well. Her relationships with all four of her children plus her sons and daughters in law are depicted. Seward describes her early life as not quite as idyllic as depicted and recounts that she sometimes had to be a stoic figure in being a ruler. Her marital problems with Prince Philip are recounted as well; the author maintains that the Queen and Prince Philip have overcome these adversities to build a good marriage. In conclusion, the best parts of Sewards work are the wonderful photographs and the depiction of the Queen. If Seward had done as good a job writing about the late Princess and not done such a hatchet job, this book would have been a much better one. The Princess maintained that the fault for the break up was fifty-fifty. From this book those who don't know better would assume the fault is all the Princess's, the author being most sympathetic to the Prince.(Note: there is a historical error in book: Zara Phillips is said to be at Balmoral when Lady Diana visited in 1980; Zara Phillips was not born until 1981).

Ingrid Seward, the Editor of Majesty magazine, has long been known as a great fan of HRH Prince Charles. When reading the book you must keep this in mind. She makes her living by writing about The Royal Family every month. She is going to tell this story and put them in a good light.

Having read a great many books on the British monarchy in general and the House of Windsor in particular, I can say with some authority that this book is a terrible disappointment and a collosal waste of money. Only about one-third of the book deals with the relationship that existed between the Queen and her late daughter-in-law. The rest is simply filler which the author lifts from a variety of books about the Windsors written by others. Especially galling is that so much of the filler doesn't even pertain to the Queen and Diana -- ostensibly the subject of the book. Instead, it rehashes stale tales about other mrmbers of the family, living and dead, which have nothing to do with the subject of the book. While there are a few small nuggets of new information -- e.g., Charles feared an attempt on his life during Diana's funeral procession; the Queen was deeply sympathetic, patient and kind towards Diana, even when Di was acting her craziest -- they certainly don't warrant a book at this price. A lengthy magazine article in Vanity Fair would have been far more appropriate, given the scarcity of real news in this disappointing book.

If you are like half of the population and interested in all the gossip about the House of Windsor and the late Princess of Wales, then this book should be one that you should read. This book is about the relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana. This book, to my belief, is a piece of evidence on why we as the public should respect Her Majesty, and why we should understand what their relationship is truly about. The book describes Diana's first State duty with the entire Royal Family in November 1984 at the State Opening of Parliament. Diana was having her hair being done for the event and insisted that she wore her hair up knowing that it was not long enough and looked different. The next day Diana's hair was on the headlines not the Queen, on which should have been a day of her publicity. This was the beginning of the popularity contest between these two women.
The author Ingrid Seward, is editor of Majesty magazine. She has written many books about the Royal Family that has kept her in the bestsellers list for twelve years.
This book all and all will give you a better knowledge about both women and will teach you the inside story of what happened behind the palace walls of two remarkable women and there relationship that is so widely known and questioned by the public.

OK, so this is yet another book on the troubled times of Lady Di and her interactions with the rest of the Royal Family, most notably the Queen. But I enjoyed reading it. It was well-written, even if the material within was slanted in favor of the Queen and Charles. Once you realize that, and you should within just the first few pages, you can pick and choose - I don't believe, for example, that Charles was faithful to Diana until her own infidelities nor do I find Prince Philips the most savory character - I found myself resenting his pointing any accusing fingers. What I did like about the book was the way it brought events past that occurred in Queen Elizabeth's life to the fore and compared them to the more recent times of the late Lady Di. It reminds the reader that time is fleeting and that there is nothing terribly new under the sun when it comes to publicized notorieties, scandels and popularity ratings. I have never seen Queen Elizabth as the ogre mother-in-law that some books in sympathy with Di have made her out to be. She has clearly tried to tread a fine line in her duties as Queen and a mother-in-law. I think this book made it perfectly understandable how the relationship between Di and her mother-in-law evolved. As for the mistakes and misunderstandings involved, hindsight seems to come across the wiser. I think Ingrid did a fine job depicting a human side to the Queen that people had forgotten or overlooked during the Di-mania years.

Yet another bashing of a dead woman who can't defend herself. The author spares the queen and her son, as they are still alive, and the author wants to stay in favor. No objective person could turn a blind eye to what harm they brought her AND themselves.

This book is a boring re-hash of all the other books which supposedly cover "new ground".

As for Earl Spencer's Euology, it was wonderful to hear the truth, no matter who told it. The author made a big deal about what bad manners it was. How about how they treated Diana, were does this figure on the authors "manners" scale? As for the Earl being a hypocrite, what is the author, but that? How much courage is involved in trashing a dead woman who can't defend herself?

The public loves her warts and all and I think it makes the palace and the media crazy. THey are no longer the shaper's and spinners of opinions, the public can decide for themselves.

Don't waste your money, it's been done before, and you can bet the palace had advace say before this book was published so the untold story is a little suspect.

Thank you, Ms. Seward for writing a fair and reasonable book. It's gratifying to read a work that illuminates how hard our queen tried to accomodate the late Princess of Wales and what a truly lovely person she is. Elizabeth II is a great queen -- history will bear this out -- and I think we often take her far too much for granted. God bless and keep her!

As a British subject currently residing the states, I remain astonished at the rabid interest our royal family holds for Americans.

I find Ms. Seward's writing to be painful to read. For an editor of Majesty magazine, I expected her to have class in her manner of writing and respect in her depiction of the British royal family. She would have been well suited as a writer for the tabloids instead. Her manner of retelling is very gossipy, and biased. She can't seem to help but include her spiteful opinions of the late princess. I find her to be a very disrespectful person to be writing such a book. If you are looking for historical background or a respectful account of the Queen and the late princess, this is not the book to read.

I would not recommend this book to anyone. I felt cheated. The book was extremely biased on part of the Queen. I do not think that Ingrid Seward was objective as a writer. It is such a pity that she could not give any respect to the person that made her magazine sell. Back in the 80's, Diana was prominently featured in Majesty magazine. No one bought it to see what the Queen wore. I was expecting a little more honesty than I read in this book. Queen Elizabeth and Diana were just people. A mother and daughter in-law. There was a divorce. No one is perfect, but this book would lead you to believe that all the royals were. Save your money.

I had no idea until I read this book how "sainted" the Queen actually was. It was actually hard to read, the author was so completely biased that I found it hard to believe anything that was written after awhile. The premise is basically that Diana was a kook and the Queen was a patient, saintly woman who only thought of what was best for Diana. If one is to believe this book, then every other book written about Diana has been full of lies. Although most of the books ARE biased in one way or another, toward one person or another - this writer must be on the Queen's payroll. A nice fairytale.