"The Diana Chronicles" by Tina Brown (2007)


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Duchess said:
not trying to start an argument here, believe me, but are you saying that the basis of the change in her opinion of diana is from reading different books and newspaper and interviews from others as opposed to when she was "friends" with the princess? :flowers:
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Me neither. :flowers: It is possible that over the years she has read various books and spoken to an assortment of people that has shed a different light onto little things that she thought were 'facts' or was unsure about.

For years it was quoted that Diana threw herself (while heavily pregnant) down a flight of stairs. We now 'know' through various sources that she sort of slipped/slithered down three very shallow, carpeted steps.

Time and other sources can bring clarity as well as fogging! :flowers:
 
By reading and listening to every gossips which are (for the most of them) total lies, we are somtimes 'forced to believe it. Even very trustful sources can fool you. The best thing is to make a selection of the informations before writting a book full of hypothesis.
 
I've read hundreds of biographies over the years and can tell you all that there are types of biographies: 1. the fawning type,where the subject can do no wrong 2. the defaming type,where the subject's reputation is torn to shreds 3. the honest type,warts and all treatment,but the subject is portrayed fairly and ends up looking good

Tina Brown has reputation for writing the defaming type of treatment;I've learned over the years not to believe everything I read. Diana wasn't a saint,she wasn't perfect,but she also was not a monster!She had her faults,but she was a likeable human being who had the ability to sit down and talk with any one and make them feel special.Tina Brown's story is going to be a re-hash of many other biographies written by others,but with an un-pleasant slant. I have read the article "The Mouse That Roared" so I know what to expect...a mean-spirited approach to Diana's life.

I am a Diana fan,but I also accept Camilla,now.I wish that things had turned out differently,but Diana is dead,life goes on,and Camilla is part of Charles' life. Both women should be treated fairly.
 
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TheTruth said:
By reading and listening to every gossips which are (for the most of them) total lies, we are somtimes 'forced to believe it. Even very trustful sources can fool you. The best thing is to make a selection of the informations before writting a book full of hypothesis.
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Nobody can force anyone to believe what is written in a book, you either accept the information or disgard it.
 
Hi All,

First off this is my first post after many months of lurking and being fully entertained and fascinated by everyones posts.

I'm a third of the way thru "The Diana Chronicles" by Tina Brown and have to honestly say it appears to be a very even handed look at the life of a very complex Diana.
It doesn't sugar coat her failings and at the same time doesn't appear (as yet) to gush and embellish her life.

I've skimmed ahead and it appears to be one of the few Diana books that look at her as a person and not an icon, victim or evil manipulator.
Additionally Tina doesn't appear as yet to blame Diana for her faults.

I believe that 10 years is possibly the perfect time to look back and reflect on Diana's life.
Enough time has passed that the overwhelming adoration has faded to an extent. Likewise the attacks on her life also been levelled against her.

Maybe now we are truly ready to see Diana as she actually was.
Fascinating, complex, troubled and unique.

Oh I did get past the part about her birth and conception. I didn't see any reference to the idea at this part (it may come later in book) to anyone other than Johnnie Spencer being her father.
 
Skydragon said:
Nobody can force anyone to believe what is written in a book, you either accept the information or disgard it.
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Yes, just like documentaries you watch or you don't watch. What I'm trying to say is that many things were written just like "the story of the stairs" and many people believed it (me the first). Like you said some sources can bring clarity but they also can fool you ...
 
Welcome to the world of posting as well as lurking, glassary!
 
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Sad when you know that information must stay objective and not subjective lol.
 
Depending on how you evaluating the creditability of the sources of information and the creditability of the authors. For most information Tina Brown has mentioned, I have read from other books. Those authors name the sources without hiding anything. Certainly they vertify these events and they put great efforts to persuade the sources to list their names.

Tina Brown is a skillful and sharp journalist. She does not seem to be biased because she does reveal the ways Charles and Camilla maintaining their affairs. It is my opion of course.
 
So I see excerpts of Tina Brown's book are coming out. A lot of the stories I've heard from the book are pretty old.

The story about Diana being in love with the idea of a Prince rather than a real flesh and blood human being has been around for a long long time. From the time of her engagement, her schoolfellows talked about her infatuation with Charles and how she plastered posters of him on the wall at her finishing school in much the same way as young girls today would have posters of rock stars and movie stars.

If this is all the book is, its rather disappointing.
 
love_cc said:
Tina Brown is a skillful and sharp journalist. She does not seem to be biased because she does reveal the ways Charles and Camilla maintaining their affairs. It is my opion of course.
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she may be revealing the ways charles and camilla maintained their affairs but she isn't the first to do this. i've read other books that have revealed the friends and homes where they were able to meet discreetly, although to be honest i can't remember where i read them. i wonder if ms. brown is borrowing information from other sources or does she really have first hand information. at any rate, i think this book is going to be popular as it's been in the news a lot on this side of the atlantic.
 
'Diana,' the real and imagined

I just finished reading Tina Brown's new book, "The Diana Chronicles," and I think I'm going to the chiropractor now.

I read every whiplash chapter and came away rubbing my cervical vertebrae. This book is the closest I'll ever get to knowing Diana, the late Princess of Wales: a woman mesmerizing and charming one moment, manipulative and calculating the next … all affection and confiding phone calls one week, and the next, the coldest, best-dressed shoulder in England.

'Diana,' the real and imagined - THE SATURDAY READ - Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com
 
Duchess said:
i wonder if ms. brown is borrowing information from other sources or does she really have first hand information.
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I've wondered the same thing.
 
ysbel said:
I've wondered the same thing.
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Since the book is intended as a biography and not a personal memoir, from what I've gathered is that, like most biographers, she has incorporated information from previous biographies and articles supplemented by her own addtional research.
 
Well I understand that but I haven't heard too much of totally new revelations emanating from this book.

selrahc4 said:
Since the book is intended as a biography and not a personal memoir, from what I've gathered is that, like most biographers, she has incorporated information from previous biographies and articles supplemented by her own addtional research.
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Princess Di Was No Sweet Lamb, Tina Brown Bio Claims (Update1)

If you slapped an Edwardian-style picture hat on the head of Camilla Parker Bowles, you would be struck by her resemblance to Prince Charles's adored nanny,'' Tina Brown observes early on in ``The Diana Chronicles,'' her biography of the late Princess of Wales. This is a book from which no one emerges entirely unscathed

Bloomberg.com: Muse
 
Book reviewers get pre-publication copies, and it's available on Amazon (and probably elsewhere) now.
 
I just ordered the book and will be receiving it in a few days;I am going to reserve judgment on it until I read it.I have read many books on Diana and the Royal Family and know that they are all too human;Diana had her good traits and her bad traits,just like Charles or anybody has good traits or bad traits. A competent biographer will be able to portray all aspects of a person and present without any bias so the reader can get as complete a picture as possible. I hope Tina Brown can accomplish this,but I'll just have to wait and read it for myself.
I've seen Penny Junor on several programs about Diana and the Royal Family;she has a pro-Charles slant so anything she writes would be a little negative. Diana suffered from mood-swings,a common occurrence with anorexia/bulimia patients;she was also under the stress of a floundering marriage which she so desperately wanted to work and she was very young and didn't know handle the situation well. But,I don't think Diana had any psychological disorder;she could be difficult which is an entirely different thing than being mentally unbalanced!
 
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Hiya All,

Just finished the book and maybe I'm missing something but I can not find a reference to Sir James Goldsmith as Diana's father.
It does refer to Frances's affair with Peter Shand Kydd after all her children were born.
I double checked the index at the back and pulled all Sir James pages and re-read the chapter on Diana's childhood and there is no mention of Sir James in this regard.

Also depending on where you are in the US the book has been out over a week. I picked it up at Target almost a week ago. Most stores stock new book titles on tuesdays.

Thanks
 
When Diana was trying to woo Hasnat Khan,didn't she spend a lot of time with Jemima,who was married to a Pakistani cricket legend,Imran Khan?
 
I don't think I agree with the Camillla's part about this book. She borrowed the conclusion from Patrick Jephson that "if Camilla backed off the marriage could be saved".Certainly Ms Brown should check up other books about Charles and Camilla.They are made for each other and they are destined to be together. Love can be against all odds.

Diana was a sad story but I don't think Diana can be ever the wife Charles always wanted. If both are suffered deeply in the marriage, I would rather they divource to pursuit their own happiness. Camilla issue won't disappear even she is not in the picture because she will be always in Charles' heart whatever happens.It always sounds cruel that locking Charles and Diana up in an unhappy and unloved marriage for ages. It's my opinion only.
 
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misselle said:
I've seen Penny Junor on several programs about Diana and the Royal Family;she has a pro-Charles slant so anything she writes would be a little negative. Diana suffered from mood-swings,a common occurrence with anorexia/bulimia patients;she was also under the stress of a floundering marriage which she so desperately wanted to work and she was very young and didn't know handle the situation well. But,I don't think Diana had any psychological disorder;she could be difficult which is an entirely different thing than being mentally unbalanced!
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Actually I thought Penny Junor was quite balanced. She hasn't been 100% approving of Charles or the royal family either so it seems she can criticize all the parties and not just Charles or Diana.

As far as Junor's assertion that Diana was mentally unbalanced, I think there are enough facts out there from which an objective person could draw the conclusion that Diana was mentally unbalanced.

Diana admitted herself that she suffered from bulimia, post-partum depression, and a tendency to inflict self-harm on herself. Given that she suffered from 3 distinct but different psychological problems, its not a stretch of the imagination for an author to come to the conclusion that she was mentally unbalanced. If you read literature on women who have just the tendency to inflict self-harm and not the others, they are often described as mentally unbalanced.
 
I think the Princess of Wales was going through a mental breakdown during that time. She was heavily depressed over the breakdown of her marriage, buI believe by the time of her death she was no longer suffering from these diseases.
 
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