Author:Tina Brown
_____________________________________________
The 20th Anniversary Edition of Tina Brown's definitive behind-the-scenes insight into the life of Diana Princess of Wales, as depicted in the hit Netflix series The Crown, with abrand new introduction by Andrew Marr.
_____________________________________________
More than twenty years after her death, Princess Diana remains a mystery. Was she "the people's princess," who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions? Or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy?
In this commemorative edition, which includes a new introduction by Andrew Marr,The Diana Chroniclesparts the curtains on Diana's troubled time in the mysterious world of the Windsors, as she breaks out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect.
Knowing Diana personally, Tina Brown understands her world, understands its players and has-reaching insight into the royals and the Queen herself. Meet the formidable female cast and get to know the society they inhabit, as you never have before.
Filled with insider anecdotes and gleeful accounts of the Royal family’s dysfunction (spending every August in the freezing outpost of Balmoral for a start), it’s also the desperately sad tale of a young woman who wanted family love and support only to be left disillusioned and isolated but (thankfully) found great solace in her children.
—— StylistIntensely well researched and an un-put-down-able read, Tina Brown's extraordinary book parts the brocaded velvet, lifts the expensive net curtains and allows us an unprecedented look at the world and mind of the most famous person on the planet. It is a tragi-comedy, a soap opera, a social commentary, a historical document and a psychological examination, written by a superb investigative journalist.
—— Academy Award Winning Actress, Helen MirrenThe Diana Chronicles is an enjoyable romp. There are funny moments and Brown in an astute observer of people. Tina Brown is the biographer the princess deserves.
—— Sunday TelegraphOne of the most well-researched insider books on Diana's life . . . Essential reading for anyone interested in how she became the people's princess, and the battles she endured to ensure her legacy.
—— IndependentNothing comes close to Tina Brown's book for its tight grip on the dark human comedy that was Diana's life and death. Brown knows the ritual dances, the shouts and whispers of the tribes of Britain - the Sloanes, the paparazzi, the aristos, and the cocktail lounge lizards - better than anyone who has ever written this story, but she also has a perfect ear for the way ordinary people responded to the doomed Princess. The result is compulsively page-turning.
—— Simon SchamaThe Diana Chronicles is a blockbuster: a rollicking, page-turning, fast quipping, gripping romp of a read. It is the work of a seasoned, serious journalist who understands that just because a subject has a populist appeal does not mean that it has to get the dumb treatment
—— The TimesTina Brown makes Diana as deeply fascinating as the great heroines of literature. She is magnificent at creating atmosphere.
—— Daily ExpressEvery previous Dianologist must now take a back seat. Tina Brown's The Diana Chronicles is not a book on Diana. It is the book. It conveys better than anything I have ever read, the basic intelligence of its subject. The truly impressive thing about the book is its wisdom. It is full of good mots. It is a master. Ruthless, relentlessly inquisitive, it made me cheer to the rafters.
—— A.N. Wilson , Sunday TimesAuthoritative and well researched, Tina Brown's book should become standard reading material about the People's Princess
—— TatlerMs. Brown is in an ideal position to sort out fact from factoid. She casts a sophisticated and skeptical eye over the reams of nonsense which have smothered the Diana myth. Her sophisticated approach, a triumph of reporting, makes The Diana Chronicles a candy feast of royal gossip to be consumed preferably at a single sitting. It will bring the summer to a standstill. Every last quip and quote, snip and sneer, joke and jape about this disastrous marriage is recorded with elegance and interpreted with wise understanding.
—— The New York SunA fresh portrait of Princess Diana and the impact she had on a generation.
—— NewsweekA definitive look.
—— Refinery 29written with real understanding
—— ChoiceSimon Heffer’s Age of Decadence covers a period of British history – 1880 to 1914 – that few would at first sight equate with decadence. As the British Empire reached its height, stiff upper lips seemed more in evidence than the louche trappings of decadence. Yet Heffer makes a convincing (and beautifully written) case that those upper lips were in fact quivering away, as the world went clanking towards its destruction.
—— Andrew RobertsHeffer’s history of fin-de-siècle Britain is full of decadent delights . . . Richly and wittily written.
—— Books of the Year , Sunday TimesThere is a view, commonly held, that grand narrative histories are a thing of the past . . . This view is mistaken, as Simon Heffer proves happily and beyond doubt with his latest book.
—— Catholic HeraldThere is much to enjoy in this long account, packed with detail.
—— New StatesmanA superb history
—— Dominic Cavendish , Daily TelegraphBeautifully written and packed with intriguing facts, [The Age of Decadence] is an engaging read that will appeal to historians and general readers alike . . . Superb.
—— Book of the Week , The LadyA social, political and cultural history of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, carefully examining the contradictions of the period . . . Highly readable.
—— Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine[Heffer] has really excelled himself with this epic study of Britain in the years before the First World War. Majestic in its scope, meticulous in its scholarship, compelling in its thesis and stylish in its prose, his heavyweight book challenges the familiar historical tale of confidence and swagger and presents the age in a more complex, sombre light . . . The author has done an extraordinary amount of research, unearthing a wealth of new material from archives. . . . It is impossible to read this magnificent work without gaining a deep new understanding of a unique and troubled age.
—— Daily Express[One of] the best historical books to gift others this Christmas.
—— Daily MailHeffer has turned himself into one of Britain’s most accomplished and formidable men of letters . . . Heffer is a genuine intellectual with a shelf of books to his credit.
—— Peter Oborne , SpectatorAn epic survey . . . Simon Heffer’s intricately detailed account ends with Britain diminished and on the brink of catastrophe.
—— Jane Shilling, ‘Must Reads’ , Daily MailLondon's Big Read wants to get the capital talking about [Brit(ish)] ... a personal and provocative exploration of British history, race, identity and belonging.
—— Jessie Thompson , Evening StandardAfua Hirsch's new book uses the personal and political to take a good look at what it's like to be a person of colour here, now. Here's where you'll get an insight into what it means to be a mixed race and univocally British, yet continuously plagued with the question 'but where are you really from?'
—— Jazmin Kopotsha , DebriefAn excellent read.
—— Stephen Bush , Telegraph[A] personal and admirably honest account of her journey towards self-realisation as a woman of colour.
—— Camden New JournalA fascinating...deeply intelligent, witty and often moving exploration of race in modern Britain
—— Samira Ahmed , Mail on SundayAfua Hirsch's first book, Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, was published to wide acclaim at the start of 2018. She looks at the many, multi-faceted questions that surround identity - both on a personal and societal scale - to pen a thought-provoking read.
—— Katie Berrington , VogueIt is a life-shaping read.
—— Chine McDonald , Church Times, **Readers' Books of the Year**Brit(ish) stands out from a crop of books on growing up mixed race in 70s Britain.
—— Gaby Hinsliff , Guardian, **Books of the Year**Brit(ish) is an essential read for all. Hirsch's exploration of her identity brings to light the difficulties of growing up as mixed-race and black in Britain. She also challenges the British perception of race, and how our inability to confront our past has profoundly affected our ability to coherently understand and discuss race in our present. Brit(ish) is a call to action, if we genuinely want to progress as a society, we must change our discussions and understanding of race.
—— Louisa Hanton , PalantinateA personal, political and challenging account of what it means to be British when you are racialised as Black. Hirsch is a brilliant and fearless intellect who deftly handles the complexity of the issues
—— Bernadine Evaristo, author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER , Guardian