Product Description

The sudden and tragic death of Princess Diana has caused the entire world to reflect on how much this singular woman meant to us all. From her fairy-tale courtship, her wedding to Prince Charles, and the birth of her two wonderful boys to the stunning collapse of her marriage and the revelation of her psychological and physical trauma, we witnessed and shared in the wide range of emotions in her life. In the last few years, Diana's dedication to the downtrodden and unloved and her commitment as a mother have only strengthened her hold on our hearts.

When Diana: Her True Story was initially published in 1992, it was met with a hail of abuse from the British Establishment. As time passed, however, the magnitude of Diana's marital and personal distress made it clear, even to the greatest doubters, that this book was indeed Diana's true story; and finally, in 1995, she revealed in a BBC interview that she had indirectly cooperated with Andrew Morton.

What has not been known, however, until the publication of this new edition, is that Diana: Her True Story was in fact almost entirely based on her own words, supplemented by interviews with her friends. In 1991 and 1992, when this book was first conceived and written, Diana felt trapped and powerless within the royal family. She knew that the truth about her life was submerged under a mountain of royal propaganda. Diana: Her True Story chronicles Diana's unhappiness, which began shortly before her wedding day, and reveals the life of a young and beautiful woman who, trapped in a loveless marriage, had sunk to the depths of despair; from which recovery seemed impossible. In an act of desperation, she made the decision in 1991 to tell her own story, no matter what the cost. And so she and Andrew Morton began a collaboration that was to shake the royal family to its foundations and, eventually, force Diana to seek a new life. Tragically, that new, and briefly happy, life is over.

This new edition contains the story of how the book first came into being. What's more, Diana is able, finally, to tell her own story, in her own words. Its pages contain her own testament -- the closest we will ever come to her autobiography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1133703 in Books
• Published on: 1997
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Amazon.com Review
Diana: Her True Story was originally published in 1992 under the guise of a quasi-authorized biography, with mostly unnamed courtiers and royalty as the accredited sources. It instantly became a sizzling, international bestseller that lanced the boil of Windsor family dysfunction, triggering a chain of events that led to Charles and Diana's divorce. After her tragic death in 1997, Andrew Morton revealed that Diana herself had not only been the main source for the book, but had also edited his original drafts for accuracy. In return for this gold mine of information, Diana wanted complete anonymity for fear of retaliation from the queen. Her True Story in Her Own Words is enhanced by more than 75 full-color photographs of the princess, from her childhood in Althorp to her marriage to Charles at Westminster Abbey to her humanitarian efforts, and finally to her unforgettable funeral service. However, the most poignant portrayal of the princess emerges from the unedited transcriptions of Diana's interviews with Morton: "I think I'm going to cut a very different path from everyone else. I'm going to break away from this setup and go and help the man on the street."

From Publishers Weekly
Morton's expose of royal unhappiness--a 14-week PW bestseller in cloth--will be released in paperback to coincide with an NBC miniseries based on it. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) Eighteen thousand poignant and acid-tipped words from Diana herself. There are many revealing nuggets in the tapes, which form a new front section of the book. The most sensational involve Diana's account of the relationship between Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles. -- Review

Customer Reviews

Diana, the "People's Princess
I enjoyed reading this book, and found it to be fascinating. However, I have since read "A Royal Duty" by Paul Burrell. Some of the statments made in these two books are conflicting. In "Diana, Her True Story", it is made to sound like Princess Diane was always at odds with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. In "A Royal Duty", Paul Burrell tells a different story. He maintains Diana had a loving and close relationship with the Queen and Prince Phillip right up until the time she died. It is a very interesting book, but after reading almost everything written about Princess Diana, there are so many different views and stories, it is hard to know which to believe.

Diana Her True Story
This book was an astonishing biography about Princess Diana. It gave you insight into the life that she led both privately and in the public eye. The Princess of Wales had a good heart, even from the time she was young. She enjoyed being with people and helping those in need. Diana was also a very generous person and she liked to have fun and laugh. She seemed happy, but underneath she was suffering from depression. I was shocked at what I learned while reading the book. Whenever I pictured The Princess of Wales,I always thought of her smile, but she was really hurting inside. It all started from the disappointment that her parents expressed when she wasn't born a boy, to her bulimia nervosa, and her numerous suicide attempts. Not to mention, she was constantly being criticized by her own husband, family, and the media. I can't imagine being put in the position she was without any words of encouragement or guidance. The author did an excellent job giving examples and supporting his stories with quotes from friends, family, and the Princess herself. His style of writing gave you a greater understanding of what she was going through with very detailed stories and descriptions. There were also pictures throughout the book showing the Princess with her children and doing the things she loved. If you are at all interested in learning about the life of Princess Diana, this book is well worth reading, though at times it can be difficult to follow. It gives you a greater comprehension of her life as well as greater respect for her as a person.

Good, but definitely one sided
This book has been called "the longest divorce petition in history", and when you read it, you would have to agree with that statement. But what you have to remember is that at the time when Diana agreed to co-operate with Mr Morton, she was feeling sad, lonely, and unhappy, but she was never allowed to express that publicly. She was unhappy with her life, unhappy with her royal image, and most of all, unhappy with her marriage, yet she couldn't do what anyone else in that situation would be able to do - she couldn't visit a local solicitor and obtain a divorce. Poor woman, she couldn't even go to the gym without being followed by a throng of photographers.

When this book was published in 1992, it was dismissed by the establishemnt as being a pack of lies, but ultimately they, and the public too, discovered that it wasn't when Charles admitted his infidelity with the redoubtably ugly and gauche Camilla Parker Bowles, and when, in her astonishingly frank Panorama interview, Diana candidly shared the harrowing details of her eating disorder, bulimia.

This book succeeded on many levels. It certainly exposed the shocking truth about the Royal marriage and portrayed the Royal Family, for the first time ever, not as cherished icons but as ordinary individuals with more than their share of character defects (and this means Diana, too!) But it ultimately succeeded in its portrayal of an immature twenty year old girl, who won the hearts of the world when she kissed the Prince, only to have him become a toad, to the beautiful, compassionate symbol of kindness, caring, and humanity that she was when she was so tragically snatched away from the world. For it was the publication of this book that enabled Diana to seek a new life for herself, and in doing so she developed the character traits that enabled us all to fall in love her, this time more completely, again and again and again.