The Queen & Di: The Untold Story [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

This book about the often complex relationship between the Queen and Princess Diana had a promising start with the author's account of her meeting with the Princess. However, it degenerates into an unrelenting catalog of Princess Diana's transgressions and rarely has a good word to say about the Princess. It rehashes some of the negativism expounded in Penny Junor's and Sally Bedell Smith's works. Seward agrees with Bedell Smith that Diana had Borderline Personality Disorder plus was the first to cheat in the royal marriage (providing sketchy evidence of this allegation). The list of Diana's alleged misdeeds include: pretending not to be home to her sister and father; not sleeping with Charles after Prince Harry's birth (testimony of Charles's associates); being a shrew to Charles, always shouting at him; being obsessed with Camilla Parker Bowles; dressing up like a police officer and going on the town with Sarah Ferguson; and competing with Charles. Seward cannot seem to find one good thing to say about the Princess and seems to blame her for much of the problems in the marriage. Incredibly, also, Seward implies that if Diana did not find out from Charles telling her that Camilla was a former flame, Diana's obsession and jealousy could have been avoided. Seward ignores the evidence about the Charles-Camilla association that Diana was able to figure out for herself (e.g. Camilla's enduring presence during the engagement and her picture falling out of Charles' engagement book during the royal honeymoon). Strangely, the author does not condemn Camilla, a married woman for much of the time she was involved with the Prince, for her transgressions. Queen Elizabeth II is depicted in a much better light as a woman who is a dedicated ruler, yet human as well. Her relationships with all four of her children plus her sons and daughters in law are depicted. Seward describes her early life as not quite as idyllic as depicted and recounts that she sometimes had to be a stoic figure in being a ruler. Her marital problems with Prince Philip are recounted as well; the author maintains that the Queen and Prince Philip have overcome these adversities to build a good marriage. In conclusion, the best parts of Sewards work are the wonderful photographs and the depiction of the Queen. If Seward had done as good a job writing about the late Princess and not done such a hatchet job, this book would have been a much better one. The Princess maintained that the fault for the break up was fifty-fifty. From this book those who don't know better would assume the fault is all the Princess's, the author being most sympathetic to the Prince.(Note: there is a historical error in book: Zara Phillips is said to be at Balmoral when Lady Diana visited in 1980; Zara Phillips was not born until 1981).

Ingrid Seward, the Editor of Majesty magazine, has long been known as a great fan of HRH Prince Charles. When reading the book you must keep this in mind. She makes her living by writing about The Royal Family every month. She is going to tell this story and put them in a good light.

Having read a great many books on the British monarchy in general and the House of Windsor in particular, I can say with some authority that this book is a terrible disappointment and a collosal waste of money. Only about one-third of the book deals with the relationship that existed between the Queen and her late daughter-in-law. The rest is simply filler which the author lifts from a variety of books about the Windsors written by others. Especially galling is that so much of the filler doesn't even pertain to the Queen and Diana -- ostensibly the subject of the book. Instead, it rehashes stale tales about other mrmbers of the family, living and dead, which have nothing to do with the subject of the book. While there are a few small nuggets of new information -- e.g., Charles feared an attempt on his life during Diana's funeral procession; the Queen was deeply sympathetic, patient and kind towards Diana, even when Di was acting her craziest -- they certainly don't warrant a book at this price. A lengthy magazine article in Vanity Fair would have been far more appropriate, given the scarcity of real news in this disappointing book.