The Peoples Princess: Cherished Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, from Those Who Knew Her Best by Larry King

The Peoples Princess: Cherished Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, from Those Who Knew Her Best Reviews

• 
  Nicole Heckel

  HUGE waste of time. This is clearly just meant to be free advertising for all the people who submitted, and they're not cherished memories or by the people who knew her best, just literal garbage.
• 
  Kim

  Although I'm too young to remember Princess Diana's magnificent wedding to Prince Charles, I can clearly remember the day she died. I didn't know a lot about her, and found this book very interesting. Different than other biographies, this was a collection of memories from many people that knew the Princess, from Barbara Bush to her hairdresser. Many of the writer's included very endearing stories about the Princess. Some of them however, wrote more about themselves. This book left me wanting to learn more about the late Princess Diana. She was an amazing woman who dedicated her life to others.
• 
  Kristine

  This was a compilation of memories from people that had something they wanted to share about the late Princess of Wales. Larry King put the book together, which I must admit, made me wary of the people who would be involved with the book. I am a huge Princess Diana fan, so I was going to read it anyway. Plus it was a gift from one of my daughters. The good thing is that most of the writers knew the princess and kept their thoughts brief. The disappointment to me was that very few shared anything of real substance that would let us know the princess better. The ones that did, were well worth reading.
• 
  Annie

  Diana is a personal hero of mine and I have read extensively on her. This book was unique in that it was recollections of those who had met her and was their own memories and thoughts about her.
  
  It's a bit dated, and was written in the early 2000s and features people like Donald Trump and Larry King. Even so, I enjoyed it because it gave personal anecdotes which I think really help bring the complex character of who Diana was to light.
  
  However, I didn't love that some of the stories were written by celebrities who had never even MET her and only just admired her. Those weren't as interesting because...well...don't we all admire Diana?
  
  Also, some of the stories were negative about Diana. I certainly was not expecting that. It is interesting to hear real people's real opinions on her...but it was startling t0 hear some comments that felt insensitive and tone-deaf.
• 
  Andrea

  The symbol they used with the elegant font on the beginning sections was so pretty. I couldn’t believe Larry King wrote this. It was a surprise that he knew her, especially well enough to write a book about her. I didn’t even pay attention to the name when I saw it on the library catalog.
  
  Ingrid Seward said she was quick-witted, insecure but never took herself seriously and that she had the gift of friendship with ordinary people. I was surprised though when she said she compartmentalized her life and kept things separate, that’s why people had such different views on her. I wasn’t expecting any differing views from what I’d already heard about her this year.
  
  I liked her nickname “Shy Di.” I liked the memory of Dickie Arbiter. He was a royal reporter and worked for her when she was 26. He did the advising and managed media relations for Charles and Diana. He worked for them together and individually whenever they traveled alone. He spent a lot of time with her and they even swam together early in the morning or late at night. He said she was intoxicating and every man that met her fell immediately in love with her, including him. I thought it was so interesting to learn about someone so close to her. I was shocked that she treated people she met in public better than the ones that worked for her, and he said she treated some appallingly. I guess it’s a good thing he didn’t go into detail cuz I didn’t want to change my opinion of her. He also said she blew hot and cold and you were either in or out. At times they didn’t speak to each other. She froze people out, especially if they got too close to her. He pointed out a lot of people crawled out of the wood works after her death, claiming to know her and be her friend, but that she had so few friends they could be counted on one hand.
  
  I liked that he shared that she was generous and loved giving people presents, and wanted them to open them in front of her. I was surprised he said that she wasn’t beautiful, but had the looks and charisma and glamour that turned heads. He was at the Palace after her death and saw firsthand the flowers that were placed out, and when the queen and Duke of Edinburgh came out he was worried about their reception but the crowd actually applauded and said comforting words in sympathy.
  
  Lord Jeffrey Archer said that they don’t make them like that very often and I really like that line because it shows how special people thought she was. It was nice that he had a signed picture, a pair of cuff links and letters from her.
  
  I was so surprised that Tyra Banks wrote something in here, I was floored that she knew Princess Diana..only to read little more than half a page which just had her thoughts that Diana was someone to relate to and aspire to and she her struggles were those of the everyday woman..and I flipped the page and that was it. She didn’t know her at all, just cried after hearing about her death. I didn’t see why that was included in here at all.
  
  My mom stayed up watching the news too and she was sad because she liked Diana; does that mean she gets to write in the book too? If on the cover it promises “cherished memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, from those who knew her best” then it should be just that, cherished memories of her from those who knew her best, not people who didn’t know her at all. If that’s the case, everyone would write in here because we all had thoughts and feelings.
  
  Harry Benson definitely represented the photographer side of the story, in that he didn’t think they were to blame and that even President Clinton said not to jump to conclusions but to wait until they found out the cause of her death. He said "you’ve got to understand” the photographers weren’t waiting at the hotel that night because they wanted to be there, it’s because every magazine and newspaper wanted a pic of the mother of the future king of England with her boyfriend. “And the cause was drunk driving. Princess Diana should be the poster child for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.” Seemed kind of crass and insensitive, and also neglectful not to put any wrong on the paparazzi. “In my opinion we could have done without the arrogant eulogy given by her brother and the recycled song sung by Elton John, which would have been more at home in a rock concert..” Wow, how nice of him. I can’t believe he said that, how outspoken and rude of him.
  
  It was such a warm memory Christopher Biggins shared, of always meeting up with Liza Minnelli when she came to town, and her asking him if he could look after a friend of hers. While he’s waiting in her dressing room Diana bursts in and says she’s going to be his date. He said she always put people at ease, had no airs or graces and that she was so charming and friendly. Her gift was to be completely approachable and to put people at least with an “off-the-cuff” comment, a joke or a comment about her life. She seemed like such an extraordinary person. It was so sad to hear, though someone else had already mentioned it in here, that Diana often ate TV dinners alone in Kensington Palace in front of the TV. And he was candid in saying her biggest mistake was falling in love with her husband, because it would have been easier to deal with if she didn’t care for him so much. He didn’t think anyone ever took her aside and told her he had a mistress, and that the Queen didn’t realize how big an impact Diana made on the world, that she was the one to put the monarchy on the map.
  
  Sarah Bradford, who writes biographies, had a different light to shed, that since her childhood Diana had the feeling she was destined for something special. Her stepdad called her “Duch” which was short for Duchess, because of her imperious ways. She had the genes of the strong, willful and difficult women of the Spencer family.
  
  Joan Collins, an actress, saw Diana again at a charity dinner and she was cold outside and asked for the waiter to bring her fur. It was a white mink and when Diana saw it she shook her finger and said “Naughty, naughty. You musn’t wear fur, mustn’t wear fur!” so she asks for it to be taken back and freezes the rest of the dinner. 2 days later she had the flu and asked if she died because Princess Diana wouldn’t let her wear her fur. That was a cute story and one that showed Diana cared about animals, which I liked.
  
  Paul Costelloe, a designer, was asked to go to Kensington Palace, and as he’s carrying his garments up the steps he falls and Diana helps him carry the clothes inside. She actually tried them on in front of him, and he thought she was attractive! It was so sweet that during his visits she would ask the taxi driver to come inside and he’d get tea and biscuits in the kitchen, which was really uncommon for anyone to do. He said she had no class discrimination. It was his skirt she was wearing in front of the Taj Mahal that was see-through that she received so much trouble from the press about. I’d heard about it on TV last month during a show about her. His fav pic of her was when she was wearing his design too, and she was suntanned, wearing a jacket and suit and was soaked from the rain, had gone up to Pavarotti after a performance. He recommended seeing it and it made me want to run out and look it up. It’s in his studio from this time (10 years after her death) and when he looks at it he still gets a lump in his throat.
  
  It was funny that Tessa Dahl, the British novelist Roald Dahl, knew her as a child, and later when they met after having their children, Tessa asked wasn’t it fun, she loves having babies and Diana said “I’m afraid I find it rather disgusting” which I would agree with. I couldn’t believe Prince Charles didn’t like that Harry was a redhead. She went on to talk about herself and not so much Diana, so it took away from the story..which was supposed to be about Diana.
  
  Nora Dunn, from SNL, said “Of course her behavior was embarrassing. Of course her desperation made me cringe.” How terrible to say of someone who died. I was too young to know about her so I don’t know what she’s referring to, but even if she did do things like this it seems insensitive to say it now. I did like that she said Diana outplayed her in-laws and their confusion about why so many ppl reacted so strongly to her death basically proving that she was wronged was nice.
  
  It was moving that Meredith Etherington-Smith wanted Diana to wear no makeup and just casual clothes during the photo shoot, bcuz she told Diana she wanted the real her and not the Princess. Diana saw them and said she’d been set free.
  
  Nigel Havers, an actor, did PR for Dunhill, a watch company and they knew Diana was going to be at a charity he was going to and they asked him to give her a watch from them, knowing it would be good for business. He was seated next to Diana and he said he knew it was her bday, here’s a present, without ever mentioning that it was from Dunhill! I thought that was wrong of him to pretend he had a present for her when really it was just a PR stunt he was asked to do. He knew she thought he’d bought it for her and thanks him, and I couldn’t believe he took credit for it. He said she was all over him in thanks. He was definitely the most candid with his feelings, really put it out there when he said he fancied her and would’ve jumped into bed with her given half a chance. But if he had he wouldn’t have told anyone. It was funny tho that his dad thought they were together so he went around telling everyone his son was having an affair with Diana. What I couldn’t believe was that he was married when they met another time: “When we arrived, there was Princess Diana, who was all over me like a cheap suit and completely ignored Caro. I could see that this was doing nothing to dispel Dad’s idea that we were having an affair, and then to cap it all Diana turned to me coyly and—I remember her words very well—said, “What does one do when this is all over? [Meaning the tennis.] Go home and watch a blue movie?” I could see Dad’s eyebrows twitching, and I replied weakly, “I suppose one does.” Apparently Diana’s way of flirting was to say really shocking, outrageous things. When he was divorced from that woman and married another Diana said she was happy he had someone else. While his wife was in country Diana would come over and visit and he’d tell her how guilty he was about falling in love with someone else and leaving his wife and daughter. And then he says he’d fantasize about going upstairs and then coming down and finding her naked. Very candid.
  
  Richard Kay, who was a royal correspondent, had been called by Diana from Paris 6 hours before her accident. It was tragic the way she had planned to withdraw from public life and live like a normal person, but wondered what’s the point because it’s not good enough for some people. She wanted to open up hospices all over the world, even talked of seeing her kids the next day. He definitely dispelled the criticism that she was manipulative, because she herself had hated being called that and said they didn’t even know her. For the last 3 years she wanted to move to another country to have some peace. She also didn’t understand why people were so obsessed with her and said other women were the lucky ones.
  
  Larry King met her a party in LA and it was cute how she said, “Oh, you’re Larry from the telly!” He even blushed when she mentioned interviews he’d done, because he didn’t know she’d seen him on TV.
  
  It was nice to hear from Twiggy, and her personal butler, who said she sometimes made crude jokes and would laugh at the shock on his face.
  
  It was so cool that Piers Morgan was so nervous to meet her, that he accepted the glass of wine offered by her butler to calm down. He said Diana was running late and would be so mad that Piers was there first. When she gets there she asks him if he would mind if William had lunch with them, saying Piers is younger than most editors and it would be good if they got to know each other. He replied sternly “I’m sorry, but that would be terribly inconvenient.” Diana blushed and stuttered and be busts out laughing, saying “Yes, ma’am, I think I can stretch to allowing the future king to join us for lunch.” What a cute moment. He said they talked about Will Carling, Oliver Hoare and James Hewitt and the scandals. I guess she had an affair with all of them. James had sold stories to the press &something about 2 women maybe being involved with the press. I didn’t know what they were talking about.
  
  The designer Bruce Oldfield and Diana were at a charity event and she gave him a pack of cigarettes and told him after the meal “Do your worst and smoke your head off” which was considered rude to do before the toast, but for some reason they chose not to have the toast. And during the speeches Diana kept pinching his butt to hurry it along to the dancing.
  
  I think some people used this opportunity to say things that shouldn’t have been said. Robert Powell, an actor, said he thought she photographed prettier than she was in person. He wasn’t smitten like most men seemed to be and that Diana couldn’t have been taken that much by surprise by the Royal Family, because her father had frequented royal life, and that he thinks she had an idea of what she was in for. “If that was the case, the popular vision of Diana as victim does look a little less realistic.” He suspects that “naively Diana had ambitions of her own, and that one of them was to be a happy princess.” After her death he was saddened, but “From the moment the event was hijacked on the Sunday morning by Tony Blair’s “people’s princess” speech (which, incidentally, I turned off after thirty seconds, I was so appalled) to the deeply unfortunate speech made by her brother at the funeral, what should have been a time for personal grieving turned into a maelstrom of hysteria.” I was too young to know what was going on at the time, but bringing it all back now I don’t think was a good idea. It’s about remembering Diana, and I think only good things should be said about someone after their death, unless they’re a bad person.
  
  Alberto Repossi, the designer of rings for Diana and Dodi, was really confusing. I had no idea what he was talking about and this seemed more a personal memory than something that was readable to the public, because it seemed to only be known by him what he was talking about. Something about defending discretion and pleading professional ethics, showing evidence to people who wanted to discredit her and conjectures…
  
  The musician Sir Cliff Richard was at the same hotel as Diana one time and she asked him to play for her sons. He played his songs and William and Henry were bored, until Harry asked if he knew Great Ball of Fire.
  
  Ingrid Seward, editor and writer, I thought was going to be nice since she wrote in the beginning, but that wasn’t the case. She had written an article about Diana and Diana’s private secretary told her Diana wanted to see her because she was amused and irritated at what she had written. Ingrid couldn’t remember what she wrote, but it was basically that guests hid under a rug in the back of a car into her apartment through a door that couldn’t be seen by security cameras, but it could be seen from Princess Margaret’s apartment. She says it was typical of her, because she knew there wasn’t a better way of getting her point across than to confront antagonists and make them her friend. She learned later Diana was scared that she knew about her secret affair with Hasnat Kahn. Poor Diana explained to her about her marriage, that Charles and Diana still had deep affection for each other and came to an understand because of it. She hated the opinion that she’d entered a loveless marriage, said that Charles did love her and it’s upsetting to the boys to hear their dad didn’t love her. People would know that if they read his letters from the beginning and seen them the day of the separation: they both cried. It’s so sad that she wanted another kid, and Harry wanted her to have one so he wouldn’t be the youngest; she pointed out to him she needed to be married first! Diana also felt insecure when people wrote false things about her and that it was hard to meet people and wonder if they’d read about her. Diana sent her daughter letters and the girl told her dad, Ingrid’s husband, to please not say anything unkind about her because Diana was her friend. Guess her husband was as judgmental as her. I was surprised that she saw a cartoon depiction of a pile of horse crap that said “Has anyone seen James Hewitt?” in Kensington Palace which sum1 had said she had an affair with.
  
  An author and journalist, Taki, met her at a wedding and he was drunk. Diana thought he had a stuttering problem so she’s slowly telling him to take his time. That was funny. But he wrote a column about her and said she was bonkers. Wtf? He also wrote her popularity would bring down the monarchy. Diana once again confronted her haters, I thought bravely, by having someone tell Taki she wanted to talk to him. He was drunk again and missed the chair, falling under the table. Diana laughed and lifted the tablecloth, asking if he really thought she was mad. I felt so sorry for her. He says all he knew was he was mad about her. Leave it to a writer to write something mean and then not own up to it. How cowardly.
  
  It gave me chills when Chris Tarrant, broadcaster, said if you ask any taxi driver in Paris, even today (this was in 2007) they’ll say whatever happened in the tunnel that night was never an accident.
  
  I wish there had been more pictures. There weren’t nearly enough. I was disappointed with most of the memories in here. I felt like some people shouldn’t have even written anything because they barely had anything to say, just general feelings about her and not a specific memory of her. Some I definitely felt were only writing to get their “10 mins of fame.” Clearly they were cashing in on her and using her for a profit, and they shouldn’t be allowed to do that, esp the journalists and ones that made a living writing mean things about people’s lives, only to chance their opinion when they saw for themselves that she was a good person. Those people I didn��t care so much to hear from.
• 
  Valerie

  In this book, a number of famous people share stories on their memories of the Princess. I found it interesting to see and understand the ways in which people got to know her. I enjoyed the story. It was a quick read.
• 
  Sandy

  Every time that I think that I have read all the books about Diana that I found interesting another pops up. I enjoyed reading of how people met her and their thoughts on her. Some were very honest on their feelings and I was surprised.
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  Ashley Hobgood

  I had read this book out of curiosity. I liked the personal stories about Princess Diana from her friends. I thought the book was a little slow at times to get through. It was pretty good and I am glad that I read it.
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  Orit

  Love remembering and reading about Princess Diana. Many of the people who share their memories are not “those who knew her best”! However, there are gems in here of her that should be treasured.
• 
  Heather

  This book was just ok. I think my mood ruined the book. I was on a Diana roll, wanting to read books about her, but I kind of got out of the mood. Some stories I did enjoy& one day I was really into reading it all day& quickly flipped through the stories. What ruined it was that the title says "From those who knew her best" and yet there's some stories from people who hadn't met her at all, and others who didn't know her well at all. Before reading this, I was really excited to read stories from people who actually knew her best. I expected to hear from her friends & family, and I was so excited because I haven't heard anything from them. I expected funny, heartwarming, touching stories about her, but most were just descriptions, and a general overview of her. Some stories needed more elaborating. Some authors didn't even include how they felt when she passed away, or felt about her personally.
  And I wanted&expected more direct quotes from Diana. It was frustrating reading ones where we didn't really learn anything about her. Also, some people mentioned the same things, like about how she changed the perception of AIDS sufferers and banned land mines. I got tired of reading the same things, and wanted to hear something different.
  I enjoyed the chapters that had quotes from Diana, and full scenes were a treasured thing to read, particularly Pierce Morgan.
  Another thing I didn't like was that some people who seemed not to truly care, or feel emotional about Diana and her passing, included stories in here. They seemed to lack emotion, and I felt that those didn't need to be included. Some stories were just confusing; the authors didn't go into detail, and I didn't know what they were talking about.
  full review to come.
• 
  Haleigh

  The only reason I gave this 4 stars is because I feel that the quote on the front of the cover was false. "Cherished memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, from those who knew her best." I noticed that some of the entries in the book by people stated that they either only met her once and never knew her. But other than that, Good read!
• 
  Cindy

  Others peoples opinions of Princess Diana. It has some real heartfelt memories of people who got to meet her.
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  Jasmin

  A great read for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
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  Heather

  While the subject of the book is one of great interest to me - the approach of this book seemed too shallow. Short little testimonials from some people while a number never met her or had limited contact with her. What I did notice is that many people's little bios mentioned books they had written about Diana, which made me realize that this was more of the same. People still trying to make money off her memory.