Princess of Wales Diana - The Diana Chronicles

Contents

For Harry, always

Acknowledgments

One of the nice things for me about writing this book has been the chance to spend so much time in London, after twenty-two years of living in New York and only visiting my mother country as what the Princess of Wales used to call a July American. It allowed me to reactivate friendships from my years at Tatler magazine in the early 1980 s, when we covered the rise of the nineteen-year-old Lady Diana Spencer with obsessive interest, and also to make numerous new friends among people who, over the years, were either involved with the Princess or wrote interestingly about her, or both.

In the last eighteen months, I interviewed over 250 men and womenmembers of Dianas intimate circle, associates in her public life, and partners in her philanthropyand I am indebted to them all for their recollections and insights. I name and acknowledge these individuals separately below, with the regrettable exception of those who spoke on the basis of anonymity. They know who they are, and they have my appreciation.

It was gracious of Prime Minister Tony Blair to see me and share his reflections on Diana. I thank, too, his associates Jonathan Powell and Alastair Campbell. I was fortunate in that the timing of my inquiries into the controversies surrounding Dianas death coincided with the formal investigations by Lord Stevens, former Commissioner, Metropolitan Police, culminating in the publication of the Operation Paget Inquiry report at the end of 2006. I am grateful to Lord Stevens for his enlightening interview and to his colleague Mike Hargadon for staying in touch throughout. The Operation Paget Inquiry report is a formidable piece of work to which all future Diana chroniclers will be likewise indebted.

No document, however detailed, can substitute for seeing things for yourself. One of the most fruitful days of research I spent was an excursion to Paris on a detailed walk-through of the crash in the Pont dAlma tunnel with Jean-Michel Caradech, formerly a senior reporter and a war reporter with Paris Match and LExpress. Mr. Caradechs 2006 book about the last hours of the Princess, Lady Diana, lEnqute criminelle, is a superb analysis of the French investigation, which ended in 1999. I am indebted to him for many points he helped illuminate, as I am to the punctilious reporting of Martyn Gregorys Diana: The Last Days.

I struck gold when Sally Bedell Smith, who wrote an authoritative biography, Diana: In Search of Herself in 1999, steered me to Jacqueline Williams. Ms. Williams, a British researcher of outstanding quality and an associate producer of television documentaries, has worked with such distinguished authors as Robert Lacey, Ted Morgan, and Peter Evans. She combines intellectual rigor with journalistic tenacity and an editors eye for the telling detail. She is also an organizational powerhouse. Working with me on what was my maiden foray into long-form nonfiction, she always adhered to a standard of excellence. Jackie, I am forever grateful for your contributions to this book, your hard work, and for the pleasure of your company.

I struck gold again when Brian Hitchen, the former editor of the Daily Star and the Sunday Express, introduced me to Philippa Kennedy. As an experienced newspaper reporter and the former editor of the Press Gazette in London from December 1999 to November 2002, she was indispensable to my understanding of the Diana years of British journalism especially after I no longer worked in the UK. I was fortunate again to be able to raid Mr. Hitchens voluminous Rolodex of talent for the Royal expertise of the former Daily Express journalist Ashley Walton. His e-mail answers to my questions were usually back before Id had a chance to get my morning cappuccino from Starbucks. At various times along the way I received interesting research from Sallyann Kleibel, Robert Pursley, Rosie Atkinson, and the indefatigable Andrew Kirk. The investigative labors of journalist and researcher Garrick Alder on the web about the Squidgygate tapes stimulated me to look more into this bizarre episode in Royal snooping. I thank him for giving me access to the longer unpublished version of his findings. As I delved into the mysteries, communications expert John Nelson, the managing director of Crew Green Consulting Ltd., was extremely forbearing with my technical illiteracy.

More generous leads: Jacqueline Williamss second career as a documentary researcher for Atlantic Productions led me to Atlantics CEO and Executive Producer, Anthony Geffen, whose prior work on a Diana project guided me to many interesting avenues. Another talented documentary maker, Phil Craig, producer of Diana: Story of a Princess, was generous with his contacts and transcripts. The book Mr. Craig co-authored with Tim Clayton, based on the TV series, is full of excellent material. Paul Bennetts discerning eye scanned picture libraries for the appealing Diana shots in the front and back of the book.

My favorite excursion after Paris was a visit to Scotlands Blairquhan Castle in Ayrshire to observe Stephen Frears, who was in the process of directing the memorable movie The Queen, as he worked with his cast and production team to bring to life Peter Morgans brilliant screenplay about the aftermath of the death of the Princess of Wales. During the course of their research for the film, they had garnered many unusual insights they shared with me. Watching Dame Helen Mirren morphing back and forth between takes from the irreverent contemporary actress to the emotionally veiled Monarch only increased my awe of her Oscar-winning gifts. England was built on shoes like these, she commented as she slid her feet into some monarchical walking brogues.

Our knowledge of Diana owes much to the writings of Andrew Morton, whose Diana: Her True Story and the verbatim version of Diana: Her True StoryIn Her Own Words remains one of the great publishing scoops ever. He has been most helpful to me. So has Patrick Jephson. Shadows of a Princess, his memoir of his eight years as Dianas equerry and then private secretary, is replete with intriguing observations as well as an insiders perspective on what it takes to run a princess who became a global phenomenon. Ken Wharfe MVO, Dianas former personal protection officer, was generous with his time, and I referred often to his robust memoir, Diana: Closely Guarded Secret. Paul Burrells two memoirs, too, have much touching detail to commend them.

Royal biographers seem to be an extremely collegial breed. I had help and encouragement from such titans of the genre as Robert Lacey, Anthony Holden, Kenneth Rose CBE, Hugo Vickers, Jonathan Dimbleby, and Ingrid Seward. Gyles Brandreths biography, Charles Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair, was valuable as much for its humor as for the store of information it provides. There have been so many books about Diana that it was a relief toward the end of my research to turn to the sound judgments of Sarah Bradfords biography Diana. I thoroughly recommend Charles Spencers The Spencers: A Personal History of an English Family and Althorp: The Story of an English House, which combine his personal knowledge of the Spencer familys history with a historians scholarship and a felicitous style. For a sympathetic portrait of Frances Shand Kydd there is none more informative than