Amy W's Reviews > Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words

I can't remember being aware of Diana before her death in 1997. As a 9-year-old I woke up bright and early on that Saturday ready to watch the morning cartoons as usual. Instead what I found was rolling news footage of some woman who had died in a car crash. Flicking through the channels and realising the cartoons weren't coming, I headed upstairs to my parents' bedroom in a huff. Waking them up I announced, "There's nothing on, it's all 'oh nooo Princess Diana's dead'". The reaction from my parents was a sleepy yet stern "no she isn't", as if I was making it up. It was that much of a shock to them. I meanwhile didn't even know who she was at that point, but I was about to – she was everywhere over the next few months, as my parents and I were to witness.

Since then I've always been mildly curious about the real story. Although not actively seeking the information, I've found myself watching and reading a few documentaries and news articles about her and her life as the wife of Prince Charles. When this book came up on the Kindle Daily Deal I felt compelled to download it. I'd never have paid full price for it, but there's no arguing with 99p to indulge a curiosity.

The first part of the book is direct transcripts of taped conversations with Diana. It's "in her own words", as the title states. Sadly there weren't many revelations there as I found I already knew much of it. That might not be the case for everyone though and I imagine at the time the book had a lot greater impact than it does these days. It's interesting that her words from 1991 now seem prophetic e.g. feeling that she'll never be Queen, a connection to France (where she died), and that she'd one day fall in love with a foreigner. All correct.

What follows is basically the same timeline of events that Diana had given, but with slightly more detail and context added by Andrew Morton. Sadly, it felt largely like I was reading the same book twice. Morton did add chapters at the end about Diana's death, but that story is also widely known so there wasn't anything new there.

The book of course took a distinctly pro-Diana/anti-Royals stance. Personally I'm inclined to take Diana's side so I didn't mind this, but it could annoy some wanting a more balanced view. The book is in essence about Diana though, so the bias was to be expected.

This was just OK for me. The quality of writing wasn't anything special and the information wasn't much of a surprise. It was good to read everything in order though and I don't think there's anything else I need to know about Princess Diana now!