The complex relationship between the Queen and her daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales is examined for the first time in detail by bestselling author Ingrid Seward.
The book charts the sometimes touching and often fraught association between two powerful women from the moment Diana stepped over the Queen’s threshold at Balmoral as a weekend guest in the 1980s to her death in 1997, and shows how the monarchy was affected by the tragedy.
The author tells how the Queen tried to welcome Diana into the royal fold and how – too scared, young and psychologically troubled – Diana failed to grasp the hand of friendship. Explosive and revealing, this book describes how the Queen mostly stood alone in her defence of Diana, although in the end she came to fear her – and her effect on the Queen’s grandchildren William and Harry and on the institution of monarchy.
Through a meeting with the Princess a few weeks before her death, the author provides an astonishing insight into the Camilla Parker Bowles set-up and the views and opinions of one of the most adored and vilified women of the 20th century.
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The Queen and Di is also a rather misleading title for a book that is in fact a subtle denigration of Diana and a defence of the Queen and the workings of Diana's most hated institution, the Palace. Seward is at pains to stress that the Queen "had tried to accommodate Diana within it--bending its rules, excusing her indiscretions, making allowances for her illness, overlooking her outbursts, taking note of her grievances, ignoring the way she tried to claim centre stage and ordering her staff to treat her with respect and courtesy at all times." There are some extreme claims--including the diagnosis of Diana's "Borderline Personality Disorder"--and moments of surreal hilarity, such as the picture of Diana running through the Palace chanting "I've got Brenda's rocks" on the eve of her wedding, after being presented with Queen Mary's jewels by the Queen. The Queen and Di is an unwitting portrait of a household in terminal decline, and a young woman who accidentally accelerated its slide. --Jerry Brotton
'"Devastating... the untold story of how Diana spurned the Queen's hand of friendship and started a spiral of mistrust that turned the two women into enemies"
DAILY MAIL'
The complex relationship between the queen and her daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales is examined in detail for the first time by bestselling author and royal biographer Ingrid Seward. 'The Queen & Di' charts the sometimes touching and often fraught association between two powerful and determined women from the moment Diana stepped over the Queen's threshold at Balmoral as a weekend guest in the 1980s to her death in 1997, and shows how the monarchy was affected by the tragedy.
Chronicling the parallels in their lives as well as their contrasting styles and differing conventions of their times, Seward provides new insights into the behind-closed-doors scenes of Buckingham Palace as Diana's fairytale marriage began slowly to unravel and events spiralled out of control. The author reveals the lengths to which the Queen went in her efforts to understand her daughter-in-law – her unstinting generosity and support, her encouragement and forbearance – often standing alone in her defence, until she was finally driven to distraction and plunged into despair; she shows, too, how Diana, too scared, young and psychologically troubled, failed to grasp the Queen's hand of friendship in return, and how, in the end, the Queen came to fear her – and her effect on the Queen's grandchildren William and Harry and on the institution of the monarchy.
Through a meeting with the princess a few weeks before her death, Ingrid Seward provides an astonishing insight into the Camilla Parker-Bowles set-up and the views and opinions of one of the most adored and vilified women of the twentieth century.
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Chivers Large print 2001 hardback, ex library book with usual plastic cover, label removed, markings and stamps but in VERY GOOD CLEAN TIGHT READING ORDER.Full refund if not satisfied. 24 hour despatch. Will go via Surface Mail outside Europe. Seller Inventory # lib231