The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown
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Book Reviews of The Diana Chronicles
Book Review: I thought there were no new Diana perspectives left . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
until I picked up Tina Brown's Diana Chronicles. What a damn good read. What a damn good writer. I still don't know if it's the writing style; the near insider's viewpoint; empathy for the protagonist, but the combo makes this, in my humble opinion, the Diana book to bring to the desert island.
I guess this book gave me some sympathy for all concerned. It tempered the urge to cast Diana as the Sainted Victim and the Windsors as the Evil Perps. Without excusing anyone, Brown's opus hits the right note with its sly asides when zinging the bad behavior of the central characters.
This is a tragic, human story. It's played out in palaces, limos, yachts, jets, in front of the predatory media and the glib gossip industry. Take all that away and it's an all too common story - a brilliant, fragile, mentally disturbed woman's quest for love is thwarted by insecurity, callousness, indifference, adultery, entitlement and ultimately, her own recklessness.
Book Review: I really, truly didn't think it was possible, but when I finished the book, I loved and admired this golden Princess EVEN MORE.
Summary: 5 Stars
I hesitated to read this book. Even once I bought it, I put if off for months. I mean, I love Diana SO MUCH it kind of hurts to read about her. Let her rest in peace. And besides, what could this book possibly have to tell me about my beloved heroine that I didn't already know??? But once I opened the cover, I couldn't put it down. I was completely sucked into and enveloped by Diana's luxurious, heart-wrenching, rule-breaking world of love and tragedy. I didn't want the book to end. I really, truly didn't think it was possible, but when I finished the book, I loved and admired this golden Princess EVEN MORE. The book was filled with new insights, info and titbits that every other book and magazine article is lacking. Tina Brown has filled in the missing pieces of Diana's tangled, bittersweet story and made sense of it all - and most of all, she gave us a better grasp of Diana's radiant humanity that has always lurked beneath the royal façade. A must read.Book Review: If you're a Diana fan and have read all the others, read this one too! If you haven't read anything else, this one is the best.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is written from the hand of someone who not only knew Diana, but also knew her world. Tina Brown gives the reader a thorough insight into the life of Diana as a young girl and the strange, inverted life of a young woman born to priviledge working as a cleaning woman and nanny. Such was the life Diana lived as a young woman. This book is not gossipy or coy, but seems truthful, factual and very straight forward.
If you are a Diana fan, and were held spellbound by the courtship, marriage, and celebrity of the most famous woman in the world - and don't be ashamed if you are - this book is a must read. I give it five stars for the very good writing mechanics, for the thououghness of Ms Brown's research, and the empathy she has for her subject.
Book Review: Detailed Portrait
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an even handed, rich portrait of a very complicated young woman. I purchased the audio thinking it was a fluff piece I could listen to while working out, but found the book fascinating and was sorry when it was over. Tina Brown presents each of the major characters in this tragedy as multifaceted individuals, making this not the usual tabloid nonsense, but a sociological study of a very interesting and often self-destructive family.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.