Princess Diana Exhibit, Case Two

Placard, Shelf One

1991 saw the appearance of a number of books and television programs celebrating the couple's 10th wedding anniversary and depicting the state of the marriage in a way that was far removed from the reality of the relationship. The hypocrisy of the situation, coupled with a desperate desire to get out of the marriage, caused Princess Diana to make contact through a third party with Andrew Morton, author of Diana’s Diary (1991) so she could tell her version of the story. The resulting book, Diana: Her True Story (1992), achieved the result she wanted by bringing about an official separation in December 1992, but it also spawned a large number of increasingly intrusive books and videos which undermined the prestige of the monarchy and questioned the need for its continued existence. It also unleashed the press to begin an escalating scale of harassment of the younger members of the royal family in pursuit of more sensational stories and pictures, a chase that would end only with her death.
 
 

Images Below: Left and Right Sides of Shelf One

Placard, Shelf Two

Princess Diana’s special affinity for children was apparent from the age of 6, when she mothered her little brother Charles after their parents’ divorce. Later, it influenced her to become a kindergarten assistant and a nanny before she was married. After she became Princess of Wales, she became an active patron to many children's charities. On her tours and public appearances, she scheduled lengthy visits to many children's hospitals and made a special effort to speak with the many children who sought to give her flowers. Her loving attention to her own sons and her concern about trying to give them as normal an upbringing as possible despite their royal birth was one of the factors which most endeared her to the public. It is therefore not surprising that many products have been manufactured which are aimed at children, such as books, comic books, paper dolls, coloring books, and puzzles.
 
 

Images Below: Left and Right Sides of Shelf Two


 

Placard, Shelf Three

After her death, the first books to appear were memorial volumes, some of which were hastily edited reprints of earlier books and were long on pictures, short on text, and saw her as nothing less than perfect. Better tributes appeared in the books written by long-time royal reporters such as Anthony Holden, Richard Kay, and Brenda Ralph Lewis, whose Diana: an Extraordinary Life (1998) originally appeared as a serial publication on British newsstands. Updated biographies by Andrew Morton and Lady Colin Campbell appeared and generated some controversy because of their revelations about her personal life; and there were memoirs from persons on the fringes of her life, such as her spiritual adviser Simone Simmons, and Mary Robertson, who had hired Diana as her son's nanny in 1981. Among the most beautiful and expensive books were four fashion compilations, the best of which is Diana:Her Life in Fashion (1998), also originally published serially in Britain. Written by a Vogue editor, this book covered Princess Diana’s entire life and traced how her increasing self-esteem could be seen in her clothes, showed how she paid homage to fashion icons of the past such as Jacqueline Kennedy and Grace Kelly and to the cultures of places she visited through her clothes, and displayed dazzling close-ups of the beadwork and embroidery on selected gowns.
 
 

Images Below: Left and Right Sides of Shelf Three

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