• The Diana Chronicles

  • By: Tina Brown
  • Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
  • Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (635 ratings)

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The Diana Chronicles  By  cover art

The Diana Chronicles

By: Tina Brown
Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
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Publisher's summary

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, as well as Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, could possibly give us the truth. Tina knew Diana personally and has far-reaching insight into the royals and the Queen.

In The Diana Chronicles, you will meet a formidable female cast and understand as never before the society that shaped them. Among them are Diana's sexually charged mother, her bad-girl sister-in-law, Fergie, and, most formidable of them all, her mother-in-law, the Queen. Add Camilla Parker Bowles, the ultimate "other woman", into this combustible mix, and it's no wonder that Diana broke out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect.

©2007 Tina Brown (P)2007 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Tina Brown has produced something that is, as well as absorbing and stirring, witty and penetrating." (Christopher Hitchens)
"A delightfully smart and insightful book that...weaves a compelling human drama into a rich social history." (Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe)
"This is not only first-rate biography, but a marvelous social history, and a bitingly accurate portrait of the English upper classes." (Michael Korda, author of Charmed Lives and Ike)

What listeners say about The Diana Chronicles

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best Diana's

Would you listen to The Diana Chronicles again? Why?

I will keep and treasure this. It is great insight to one of my most favorite women.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the look inside the cast of characters. Not only Diana's but other's important in her life. The Queen, Prince Phillip and Prince Charles changed my minds about them for the better, and others for worse..

What does Rosalyn Landor bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her voice is wonderful, crisp and easy to listen to. I know I have heard her read before. Excellent!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, and some sections I listened more than once.

Any additional comments?

One of the very best books on Diana.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A favorite

I thought this was an extremely good listen. I have listened to several, including the book from Diana's butler. I went into this one expecting to come away still feeling "we will never know the truth". After listening to this one, the last chapters twice, I feel I am as close to the truth as I ever could be from where I stand. I was one of the millions who did get up to watch the wedding and who cried a box of tissues during the funeral. I relived it all in this book, with an insiders view that was much more balanced and measured than I ever expected. I also think the reading was very well done indeed. I highly recommend this and am passing the CDs on to my mom.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Privileged people behaving badly

A well researched book that covers the life and times of Princess Diana.
The author keeps her objectivity and does not portray Diana as a saint or queen of hearts.
I don't know why I am not surprised to learn that behind the public façade they are really privileged, spoilt dreadful people. A very interesting listen.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Recommend

I had no trouble following this book. It was facinating. Every time I turned off my audio player, I couldn't wait to turn it on again. This is a good listen. I've recommended it to several friends.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

If you are not an Anglophile or did not get up in the wee hours of the morning to watch the wedding of Diana and Charles, you are probably not going to be interested in this book.

I thought it was an interesting and riveting listen. Rosalyn Landor's narration was wonderful. The quality of my download was excellent. I did not have any issues with echo or hollowness of sound as another listener did.

Diana did not make a world-altering discovery or lead a country but there is no doubt she had a gift for touching peoples' hearts and giving comfort. She could have been an asset to the royals. Their own jealousy and inability to help her along with her own self-centered, destructive and selfish behavior doomed the marriage.

Tina Brown presents a fair and well-rounded look at the royal family and Diana. Brown knew Diana but fairly paints her manipulativeness as well as her compassionate and loving side. At the end of the book, you can really feel sympathy for all the players in this real-life drama.

What potential, what a waste and lost opportunity for them all. Hopefully her sons will benefit and learn from the story.

I thought this was a great listen.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Literate, intelligent, and dishy

What could be better than a dishy book, written by an accomplished author with an unfashionably large vocabulary and a great sense of social and cultural history, read by a marvelous reader whose mastery of French pronunciation is as flawless as her English? Entertaining, enlightening, and totally engaging, this is a marvelous book. I heartily recommend it to all lovers of first-rate biography.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Altered Perceptions

I was not one enamored with the Princess of Wales. I thought of her as a trifle, someone to be at best tolerated; not admired. Too, the coterie of devotees who thought she was beautiful eluded my perception. She was an attractive woman, but not worthy of the incessant praise.

Well, at the encouragement of some friends, I took a chance and purchased Brown's book, having heard that it was the best in a crowded field.

This woman was a very special person who obviously loved her children and had a great compassion for ordinary people living ordinary lives with ordinary problems in extraordinary times.

Tina Brown's description of Diana's life and work, passionate yet measured, affected me much more than I expected. I have grown fond of this woman and wonder what course her life would have taken had she not lost it so soon. Perhaps in death her value to the monarchy becomes more apparent. It seems that she had a hold on Charles that was commplicated and essentially good, despite the different paths they took.

Most of all, I admire her love for her sons.

Princess Diana is most definitely a woman of substance.

R.I.P.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Yes!

The narration of the book was outstanding. I enjoyed the impersonations she used when reading conversations, especially between Camilla and Charles. This was the most informative book on Diana I have found to date. Lengthy but worth every second!

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Need a shower...

This was an icky book. Nothing to do with the reader, who was adequate, but it is very gossipy and more than a bit negative. At the end I felt in need of something to get rid of the mean-spirited feeling that dominates the listen. I have no idea how much of it is true...if even a fraction is fact, then I pity the Royals. I am no fan of them, but no one deserves this type of National Enquirer treatment at the hands of someone like Tina Brown. Shame on her for either making it up or bringing to light stuff that is none of her business. Ick.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well written, well read

This was a well wriiten and balanced account of the princess' life. Some reviewers said the author jumped around but I did not find that. It was written in a way that made it interesting and engaging. The narrator did a very good job capturing the different styles of speaking.. The best Diana biography I have "read" so far.

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7 people found this helpful