Mrs.Chardonnay's Reviews > The Diana I Knew: Loving Memories of the Friendship Between an American Mother and Her Son's Nanny Who Became the Princess of Wales

It seems like a million years ago that I tuned into the CBS Evening News (with Walter Cronkite!) one spring evening in 1981 and was charmed by a certain, blushing Lady Diana who had just become engaged to Prince Charles. I was a college freshman at the time and now I'm a member of AARP. The fascination continued for 16 years until Diana's death in 1997 and beyond. If you're a longstanding admirer, as I am, this is a book not to be missed. Written by the woman who hired Diana as a London nanny in 1980, it's a distinct departure from the gossipy stories that are all too familiar. It's a tender glimpse of a vulnerable young woman at a time before her life changed dramatically, and a friendship that survived 17 years through letters, Christmas cards and visits; written by a woman who really and truly was one of Diana's oldest and most trusted friends. Yet the differences between them were striking. The author was a good 15 years older than Lady Di, a very average American businesswoman who was in London temporarily before returning to the States, whose life was as stable and secure as Diana's was not. There's a Cinderella quality to her recollections of being invited into Diana's world. I almost had goosebumps reading her gorgeous, detailed descriptions about what it was actually like to be at Buckingham Palace for a formal ball celebrating the nuptials, St. Paul's Cathedral for the wedding, and Westminster Abbey for the funeral -- scrambling to find the correct clothes, learning protocol for an introduction to the Queen, hobnobbing with Margaret Thatcher and Prince Philip. But more memorably, being with Diana was like "being brushed by angels' wings," as her seatmate said at the funeral. Published as it was in 1998, I don't know why it took me so long to discover this treasure of a tale. If you love Diana, you will love this book.