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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Introduction