The Real Diana

By: Lady Colin Campbell

Narrated by: Sophie Roberts

Who was the real Diana? What was it like to be so privileged yet so anguished, so beloved yet so self-loathing, so spoiled yet so despairing? The Princess of Wales was all these things--far more complicated, conflicted, and intriguing a person than the wildly disparate saint or lunatic she is frequently portrayed to be.

Royal insider Lady Colin Campbell sets the record straight on many of the most controversial aspects of Diana's turbulent life: how Charles and Diana's engagement came to pass, though it seemed ill-advised to those closest to both of them; what their honeymoon was really like; the truth behind Diana's bulimia, her widely reported suicide attempts, and her obsession with Camilla Parker Bowles; Diana's search for love and fulfillment with numerous men before, during, and after her marriage; her brilliant manipulations of the press; and her relationship with Dodi Fayed.

Lady Colin Campbell's New York Times bestselling biography Diana in Private was the first to expose the truth about Diana and her troubled marriage. In The Real Diana, she reveals that the reason she knew so much about what went on behind the palace gates was because Diana herself was the source. Drawing upon these confidences--as well as on conversations with countless people who knew Diana and with Diana herself in the final years of her life--Lady Colin Campbell combines true insight with true compassion to bring us the most intimate and revealing portrait of the Princess of Wales that we will ever have.

©2004 Lady Colin Campbell (P)2022 W F Howes

The Real Diana

Lady Colin Campbell does indefatigable research with a balanced presentation of events and character. The reader does a good job.

Great book!

Well balanced account, detailed, thorough, and comprehensive. It is beautifully written. The narrator has a beautiful voice.

Explanation of murder or accident

Detailed explanations by the author and it appears well researched. Also, very well read by the reader_ fluent with inflections. Reader a jot to listen to.

Grateful for the ending

Although I thought the last sentence was ridiculously glib, I am otherwise very glad of the last chapter and the afterword in this book the accomplishments of Diana’s last year or so and going deeply into the accident that took her life. Before that, this was going to be my review:

If you want destroyed pretty much any positive memories/ideas you have of the former Princess Diana, read this book, which paints her as a spoiled, promiscuous, irresponsible, scheming, and vindictive narcissist. (I don’t doubt the veracity, but ouch. While she had some legitimate illnesses that would have affected her personality, it’s quite clear that she was largely not a good person.)

Enlightening

Lady C is an expert and fair story-teller. She portrays Diana as very real and flawed, like all of us are, but doesn’t hide her virtues. This was a wonderful book. The narrator was fantastic.