Customer Reviews

The Real Diana

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Lady Colin Campbell may not be the best writer I have ever read, but she writes the truth, and what is better than that for a biography? The people who don't like this book are the ones who don't seem to be willing to ever think that their beloved Princess of Hearts could be a vengeful b*tch, who was a bit off in the head, or that Charles was not the devil Diana wished him to portrayed as.

As it has been widely reported by pretty much everyone who knew the Princess, including her own family, she was very vindictive and a known liar. So read her accounts with a grain of salt (or a shaker), then read this book. Nothing is black and white, so remember the gray matter. I also reccomend Piers Morgan's new book to show the side of Diana many don't want to admit she had.

Though this book is flawed due to the author's use of scores of unnamed sources, it paints a pretty ugly picture of Diana. Diana comes across as vengeful, immature, irrational, bullying and a little kooky. Interesting to those not knowledgeable of the millieu of the British aristocracy, the seeds of this disasterous marriage were planted in the 1950s. Diana's grandmother, Lady Fermoy, became part of the royal circle when she became, I believe, the Queen Mother's Lady of the Bedchamber or some office of similar antiquary antecedants. The Spencers became part of the Royal family's orbit with Diana able to scheme her way into a marriage with Prince Charles. Sadly, Diana was a poor fit. She was troubled tempermentally, probably due to the fact of belonging to a broken-up, dysfunctional family. Her selfish parents were of great damage to Lady Diana. Diana and Charles were poor fits as personalities. Diana was exuberant, urban and unintellectual. Charles is laid-back, intellectual and at heart a country gentleman who relishes the manly sports of the countryside. During the very brief courtship between Lady Diana and Prince Charles, Diana led Charles to believe that she enjoyed the outdoor sports he enjoyed. This was dishonest and did not serve either well in the long run of things. In the end, however, Prince Charles must be given much of the blame for a foolish marriage as he was a man of thirty and Diana was still a girl of nineteen. Much of the later parts of the book are tediously filled with vicarious stories of Princess Diana's bedroom romps, visits to various psychiatrists, gurus and even astrologers(the silly author seems to find astrologers to be serious people), and the more widely known stories of Diana's genuine desire to bring comfort to those not as fortunate as herself. Lady Campbell's style is catty, chatty and unscholarly. But she seems to treat the greatly flawed Princess honestly. She does not paint the portrait of a saint-to the dissatisfaction of millions of Diana worshippers.

Among the countless books published about Diana (and I've read most of them!) this one is truly outstanding. With her insight into the British class system, and her well-placed sources, Lady Colin Campbell has written the most authoritative biography ever published. All the pieces of Diana's multi-faceted personality are explored, revealing why she behaved the way she did over the years. The picture is now crystal clear. I had expected a gossipy, unsubstantiated book, but instead, this is a scholarly work.

I enjoy reading every detail about Princess Diana I can get my hands on, good and bad, so I can get some idea of what this person was like. I have adored Diana since I was a young girl.

However, this book was very biased against Diana and basically does make anything positive written about Diana seem as though it was just written to please the Princess.

Also, she pretty much says that Diana was sleeping around long before Charles did, yet other books I've read indicate not only was he with Camilla, but also did cheat on Diana even around William's birth with a lady in Canada that he saw on and off even while he was just with Camilla.

I've seen some recent interviews, and other published books which actually cite NAMES of people who have nothing to gain now the Princess is dead, and dispute what this author has to say.

So it is fun gossip, albeit cruel, but take it with a grain of salt.

Also, I could not find documentation of Diana's abortion anywhere, and I would think by now more explicit details would have come out about it. This is the first and last I've heard of it and would really like to know if it is indeed true.

This was quite a disappointment, a deceiving title purporting to sell the truth. I can quite understand why this is the only book of so many of which I am aware on the Princess which dedicates no portion of the proceeds to charity. It was hardly a charitable, benign authentic or -- by an account -- worthwhile endeavor, either in the writing or in the reading.

The book is remarkably one-sided, excluding many facts and details which are common knowledge and which would lend more credibility to the tale. Ms. Campbell makes no effort to hide her antipathy toward the "venomous" Spencers, finds the break-up of the marriage lies at the foot of Diana's mental instability and paranoia, and can find not a shred of fault with the good prince.

One questions the motives of someone who expends such verbiage on sullying the memories of so many children and common folks who found in Princess Diana a ray of kindness and genuine caring and gentle touch. Politics makes! strange bedfellows.

As I read this book, I had a hard time understanding what was the motivation to attack a defenseless deceased person. The motivation was to make Charles a palatable figure. That's just not going to happen.

Everything that happened in the Wales' marriage was Diana's fault. The so-called author seems to know better about Diana's relationship with her mother than Diana did. The author uses authorities supporting her position and then passes inappropriate judgments. One of her heroes is Nicholas Sommes for first discovering that the Princess was (in his mind) emotionally unstable.

Poor Charles is "sweet" and is "misunderstood" because he does not know what love is.

The author looks high and low for quotes that Diana is a witch.

The author delves in the Princess' private life including affairs and discusses her sex life. There is inneundo that there are many more affairs that she (presumably as a lady) did not include. However, the damage has been done.

The author is not thinking at all if she thinks she is a "lady" or a friend to Diana. She should be ashamed of the pain she has caused Diana's sons and supporters.

This book deserves zero stars.

Lady Colin Campbell writes a royal insiders book on Princess Diana, giving a biased view of the late Princess. Lady Campbell digs up lots of dirt on the Princess regarding lovers, her extravagant lifestyle, her "mental illness"(who wouldn't be mentally ill having to deal with all the pressures Diana faced - and with zero support), and goes into great detail on the last few weeks of Diana's life. Many of the sources are anonymous - others are various royals, palace workers, family friends. A great deal of information came from Lady Colin's conversations with the Princess herself. This book looks at all sides of the Princess - the good and especially the bad. For a more " fairy-tale" one sided view of Diana read Andrew Morton's book. Lady Colin Campbell at times seems to despise and/or is immensely jealous of Diana, and often comes to the defense of Prince Charles instead of seeing Diana's view. For example, the author could not understand why Diana was upset that Charles wanted to say goodbye, prior to his marriage, to Camilla face to face. The author felt this was a"gentlemanly" thing to do, and felt Diana was being immature . I would recommend reading this book to any avid Diana readers (after reading Morton's book) to help get the big picture of Diana's life and how her peers viewed her

I really liked this book and reading the latest reviews on Amazon.com about it.

Seems to me, an American with a sense of humor, that the reader from Washington DC had all her points neatly proven by the pretentious lady from "New York, at the moment".

This book contained many so called secrets about Diana's life that I really don't think this author was privy to. I think she was biased against Diana and I found the book to be very distasteful in respect to Diana. I would consider this book mostly fiction!

I have read a lot of Diana books and this is by far the worst. It is such an unjustified trash that I put my Hardcover copy in the recyclables bin. "Lady" Colin Powell goes so far as accusing Diana overreacting to Wills's accident when the young Prince cracked his skull at school. Right there you know as the reader this woman has got a vendetta against Princess Diana. Diana wanting to stay at William's side in the hospital while he underwent an operation bothers Lady Powell !... The feeling I got from reading this book was one of intense unfairness. It seemed as though the author was desperate to gain the favor of the royal establisment, namely Prince Charles and his family.