'The Real Diana' (Lady Colin Campbell)

It’s like a tabloid: sleazy, sexy and scandalous. But written by a Lady. A real Lady, with palace connections and loads of sources ‘close to the Princess’. These sources – and the fact that the book boasts some credible theories about Diana’s complex personality, public life, secret lovers and untimely death – collectively rescue The Real Diana from utter sensationalism. I was glued.

Unauthorised Diana bios are everywhere right now, which would be problematic for this biography if not for the author’s unique relationship with the Princess. Positioned as a ‘Royal insider’, Lady Colin Campbell has a jaw-dropping inside track, gleaned from meetings and conversations with the high-brow Royal higher-end and with Diana herself.

Beginning with the snooty Spencer origins and Diana’s turbulent teenage-hood, The Real Diana places the Princess against the backdrop of an uncertain courtship, a glorious white wedding, a looming palace (‘Buck House’), a rickety marriage, an ugly separation, an acrimonious divorce, a flurry of tumultuous love affairs, a tragic car accident in a Paris tunnel and the resulting ribbons of swirling conspiracy.

Diana comes across as extremely unstable and Charles, as a stoic and stiff-upper-lipped coper. Which makes for a pleasant change, if you’re not a total Diana-phile. I’m not; I found the biography fascinating. My only gripe is that there are no glossy pics. You know, the kind we routinely scan for when flipping through biographies of famous people. But The Real Diana is certainly a lip-smacker. I loved it.

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