The Diana Chronicles
by Tina Brown
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tina BrownEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-20
ISBN: 076792309X
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of The Diana Chronicles
Book Review: Not Diana for beginners-- and also not the last word
Summary: 4 Stars
Tina Brown has put together a remarkably multifaceted portrait of Diana. At first blush it's hard to imagine a more exhaustively researched biography; it draws on the perspectives of literally hundreds of people who knew Diana (including Brown herself). She takes an analytical approach, questioning some of the claims Diana made via Andrew Morton's book and in the momentous BBC interview with Martin Bashir. Brown offers extensive source notes throughout.
There are some shortcomings in Brown's approach, however. She assumes her audience is familiar with the biggest events in Diana's life, and this causes her to downplay or even omit some of the most famous moments or quotes. Brown makes most chapters thematic rather than strictly chronological; the text weaves among adjoining years, making it more confusing than it needs to be to discern what happened when. Perhaps to avoid overdramatizing complex material, Brown tends not establish turning points or a strong narrative arc. Her text may be highly accurate, but there is not a clear sense of just when and how Diana and her relationship with Charles are changing. The book is highly readable throughout, but it becomes more gripping where there is more of a recounting of events, for example on Diana's last night in Paris and during the week leading up to her funeral.
In some places it seems that Diana's story is still too recent for a clear historical perspective-- or maybe Brown was less able to get people to talk, especially about the period between the BBC interview and Diana's death, where the pieces don't all seem to fit together. Brown makes much of Diana's loneliness in this period, yet she mentions various close friendships Diana had at the time-- perhaps Brown just doesn't have an inside perspective on any of them. The closeness Diana established with her sister Sarah McCorquodale toward the end, which other writers have noted, goes unmentioned. For this last period, Brown seems to have less clear evidence, but perhaps also less of the detachment she brings to earlier sections of Diana's story.
At times, Brown seems to apportion space to events based more on the information she has, or her desire to analyze, than on their relative importance. Hence we have a lengthy discussion of whether Diana trysted with Charles on the royal train during their engagement, but a comparatively brief (and not especially definitive) discussion of claims that James Hewitt might have been involved with Diana early enough to have fathered Prince Harry.
People like me, who can't get enough information about Diana-- and know a lot already-- will love this book. Those needing more of a primer would get a clearer, if more one-sided view of her life from Morton's "Diana: Her True Story." For the long term, the value of Brown's book may lie in her having gathered so much evidence from Diana's contemporaries. But a definitive biography seems to await a historian's judgment.
Summary of The Diana Chronicles
Ten years after her death, Princess Diana remains a mystery. Was she "the people's princess," who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions? Or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy? Only Tina Brown, former editor-in-chief of Tatler, England's glossiest gossip magazine; Vanity Fair; and The New Yorker could possibly give us the truth.
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