Sarah Bradford's "Diana"
Review: Diana by Sarah Bradford
(Buy it at Amazon.com)
I decided this summer that it was time to bite the bullet and finally delve into a corner of the royal library that I had so far purposely avoided: the Diana section. So much has been made about the sensational and often suspect books written about the late Princess of Wales that I felt somehow better off not having waded into the mess, choosing instead to stay on the safer borders of books specifically about the monarchy and its long and storied history. The idea of reading the Andrew Morton books, with their controversial connection to the princess, left a bad taste in my royal-watching mouth. Paul Burrell’s tell-all, which so angered Diana’s sons when it was published in 2003, was also quickly filed in the “don’t touch that” section for me.
But when I read a few positive reviews about Sarah Bradford’s biography of the princess, simply titled Diana, I began to rethink my boycott of all books about her. I found a bargain-bin copy of the initial hardcover issue in my local bookstore and decided to give it a go.
I was surprised at how careful and yet still readable the biography was. It’s not the kind of sensational book that the press likes to grab hold of to cull more tabloid fodder from. Instead, it’s an intriguing book because it treats an intriguing subject — a woman mercurial and yet shockingly childlike, someone who was internationally beloved and yet caused major problems for a millenial institution like the British monarchy.
The Diana in Bradford’s book is at times immature and stoic, both glamorous and mousy. She loves her family and her friends, but she is easily angered. She publicly denounces the press for their intrusive treatment of her but keeps the numbers of the likes of Richard Kay and Martin Bashir on virtual speed-dial. This woman is not the saint who was so publicly venerated in the days following her death, but she is also not the disturbed devil portrayed by some colleagues of her former husband. She is, at the core, strikingly human.
This measured and honest biographical eye casts a similar gaze on all of the other supporting cast members in the book. There are no villains in Bradford’s biography of Diana — there are only humans. Prince Charles does not come off particularly well, to no surprise, and neither does Sarah Ferguson. But even as she is revealing some of the less savory aspects of the characters of various figures, Bradford takes pains to remind her readers of the circumstances that surrounded behaviors and feelings. She does not explain away faults and wrongdoings, but rather contextualizes them. It’s a healthy exercise, and a good one for all biographers. It’s what has given this book its reputation among royal watchers as the most balanced and unbiased book yet written about the late princess.
Unexpectedly, the person who was most illuminated for me by Bradford’s biography was Prince William. He was not discussed extensively in the book, but the little moments included from his childhood were quite telling. The image of little Wills stuffing Kleenex under a closed door in an attempt to comfort his crying mother was touching, but the moments that showed his incredible maturity in the midst of what Bradford made seem like an incredibly immature world were astonishing. I had never read before that Prince William was the one who suggested that Diana sell some of the gowns from her extensive collection to raise money for charity. That moment spoke of a precocious practicality that I hope has been nurtured and has grown as he has gotten older.
Prince William’s childhood desire to become a policeman (something he has discussed before, notably in Matt Lauer’s interview with the princes in the lead up to 2007’s Concert for Diana) so that he could protect his vulnerable mother also, I believe, is a very good sign for William as a future husband, father, and king. One of his Royal Navy superiors recently told the press that he felt William is a natural leader, which is of course important for someone who will one day become Britain’s head of state. But even more important may be William’s sensitivity toward the emotions of those around him and his desire to protect and care for the people he loves.
Bradford paints Prince Charles as someone often lacking in these two attributes, unable to sympathize with his young and emotionally unstable wife and equally unwilling to sacrifice his own comfort and happiness for the sake of his family. If the William portrayed by Bradford is the genuine article, he will surely be nurturing and empathetic toward his wife and children and toward his people once he is king.
Bradford does a good job of illustrating intriguing portraits of the figures in her book; Diana’s friends and family seem to come to life, warts and all, all around her. One of the more distracting choices on Bradford’s part, however, is her method of incorporating source material. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of her sources for the book are anonymous within the text, and she chooses to cite them in notes rather than using attributive tags within the text itself. The effect is that often, when she is quoting more than one source in a single paragraph, it’s difficult to pick apart various opinions and ideas. Her sentence structure is similarly tough to unpack at times.
The book is a mostly even-handed look at the life of the late Princess of Wales, and Bradford has done an admirable job coping with perhaps the most difficult task of all: attempting to untangle Diana’s own confused thoughts and actions about her life. The line between fantasy and reality was often a thin one for Diana, and Bradford has done the best she can to help peel away the layers to reveal the confusing and often unsettling reality that lies beneath. Bradford is sympathetic to Diana but not blinded by her, and that makes for a truly intriguing read.
Bradford’s book is not composed of the kind of flamboyant, bombastic writing that a reader can find in the pages of Tina Brown’s biography of Diana, but it’s certainly a far cry closer to an academic biography of the subject. It’s not the book I really want to read about Diana, but that tome won’t be able to be written or released for years — probably not until most if not all of the people discussed and interviewed are no longer living. For now, this is as close as it comes — and I’m glad I changed my mind about the “Diana section” and decided to read this particular story of her life.
Review originally published on Sunday, August 10, 2008, at Watching the Windsors.
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© 2008 The Royal Reader
