The Diana Chronicles

"The Diana Chronicles" is a 2007 book by Tina Brown on the life and death of Diana, Princess of Wales. It was released June 12, 2007. The work's timing coincided with the increased attention Diana received leading up to the tenth anniversary of her death. "The Diana Chronicles" was at number one on the "New York Times" Best Seller list for hardback nonfiction for the weeks of July 8, 2007 to July 15, 2007. [cite news
title=Hardcover Nonfiction
date=2007-07-08
accessdate=2007-10-10
work=New York Times
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/books/bestseller/0708besthardnonfiction.html]

ales

Reception

According to "The Daily Telegraph":

According to the "The Sunday Times":cquote | Tina Brown’s The Diana Chronicles is not a book on Diana. It is the book. Not only does it put the story of Diana in its proper historical context of British politics, journalism and the changing mores of the past quarter century, but it is also a perfect example of the nosy-parker’s art. It conveys, better than anything I have ever read, the basic intelligence of its subject. [Cite news
url= http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article1936943.ece
title= The Diana Chronicles
date= June 17, 2007
work The Sunday Times
accessdate= 2007-10-15]

According to "The Washington Post":

cquote | Diana's tragicomedy is Shakespearean in scale, with its slippery royal machinations, its agonized ironies, its seething jealousies and heartbreaking inevitability. Brown is no Shakespeare. But she gives us a walloping good read. [cite news
first=Diana
last=McLellan
title=The Princess Bride
date=2007-06-10
work=The Washington Post
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/07/AR2007060701853_pf.html
accessdate=2007-07-27]

According to the "The New Republic":cquote | So it is all the more delicious to report that The Diana Chronicles is that contradiction in terms: a summer spellbinder for serious people. Its pleasures are owed to more than its sensational subject. [Cite news
url= https://ssl.tnr.com/p/docsub.mhtml?i=20070827&s=stansell082707
title= Death and the Maiden
first= Christine
last= Stansell
work= The New Republic
date= August 23, 2007
accessdate= 2007-10-15]

John Lanchester wrote in "The New Yorker":

cquote | But the best book on Diana is the newest, "The Diana Chronicles"....She tells the story fluently, with engrossing detail on every page, and the mastery of tone which made her Tatler famous for being popular with the people it was laughing at. [cite news
first=John
last=Lanchester
work=The New Yorker
title=The Naked and the Dead
date=2007-06-25]

Other reviews were more critical. According to Christopher Howse's review of the book in The Daily Telegraph: cquote | A recurrent word in the book is "complicity". This is not theatre but a video of complicity, as we linger over those moments of intimacy, fast-forwarding, pausing. If the camera rests on the outside of the bathroom door, we are made aware of the noises within. In the end, we hardly know what seems to soil our minds. On the last page should be printed, "Now, wash your hands.' [cite news
first=Christopher
last=Howse
title= 'Evil wickedness incarnate'
work=The Daily Telegraph
date=2007-06-28
url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/06/28/bobro123.xml
accessdate=2007-07-27]

Author

Tina Brown was a magazine editor for "Vanity Fair" and the "New Yorker" before authoring "The Diana Chronicles". While at "Vanity Fair" she previously wrote about Diana's rocky marriage. In her 1985 article, "The Mouse that Roared", which was the issue's cover story, she first broke the story of the breakdown in Diana's relationship with Prince Charles. [Cite news
url= http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19333815
title= Tina Brown dives into Diana details
author= Associated Press
work= MSNBC
date= June 20, 2007
accessdate= 2007-10-15]

Bibliography

*cite book
first=Tina
last=Brown
title=The Diana Chronicles
date=2007
location=New York
publisher=Doubleday
isbn=0385517084

References

External links

* [http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/dianachronicles Official Random House page]
* [http://www.salon.com/books/authors/brown/about/blog.html Tina Brown's blog about the book on Salon.com]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Diana-Chronicles-Tina-Brown/dp/0385517084 Amazon.com Product Overview]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/books/review/Weber-t.html?ref=review New York Times Sunday Book Review]
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19127861/site/newsweek Excerpt of book on MSNBC.com]