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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a last hatch from the golden goose., 9 Jul 2004
This isn't as pointless and trashy as one review I read elsewhere had made out, it isn't simply a prurient gawp at Diana's last lovers, in fact it is a well-written, highly respectful and sympathetic overview of the last 5 years of Diana's life. Mr Morton dedicates a substantial part of the book to Diana's charity work, particularly her landmines crusade. I know it's not fashionable these days to give royal biographers the benefit of the doubt, but I will in this case, as he genuinely seems to be concerned at the way some have tried to rubbish Diana's image in the past few years. Towards the beginning of the book he says that the Diana he is reading about in some books and articles is certainly not the Diana he knew.Although the book is heavily biased towards Diana, Morton does also record some of her more irrational behaviour, but he puts this down to her being a young woman whose early adult life had been spent in a highly cloistered and unreal world, and this had stymied her emotional development. In her thirties she often acted towards her lovers like a silly teenage schoolgirl. He admits that Diana could be quite a handful to take on, she frequently bombarded her boyfriends (and platonic friends too) with endless phone calls, dozens in one day, regardless of what they were doing at the time. For instance she would expect Dr Hasnat Kahn, a respected and hardworking surgeon, to actually walk out of the operating theatre in order to take a phone call from her! Highly exasperating though this must have been, Diana's faults still aren't that significant on the human scale of naughtiness, and are far outweighed by her good points. She genuinely seemed to want to love and care for people. This is a worthy tribute to the Princess from a man who had helped her to bring her problems into the world gaze. It doesn't tell us much new, apart for me anyway, the truth about the notorious "Panorama" interview, and how she was duped into the interview with false documents. But until we get the final truth about how and why she died, (if we ever do) I really don't think there is anything much more to tell, and Morton's book should be the last for a while. Somehow I doubt it will be though!!!
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