The early days of a young girl who is in love with the idea of being in love, with heroes, with paperback romances. Whatever love means. The Princess by Wendy Holden starts with two thirteen-year old girls, Diana Spencer and her friend Sandy, on the train going back to boarding school. Love, thinks Sandy, sounds ‘like a particularly delicious bath, deep and warm, with lots of bubbles.’ It is Diana’s character that beams off the page. Packed with contemporary references, foods, music, expressions, we see what happens when the enthusiasm and can-do attitude of a teenage girl meets the tradition and rules of royal life. Through Diana’s voice and thoughts, through Sandy’s eyes and that of Stephen Barry, valet to the Prince of Wales, we see the young girl who is destined to become a queen. Holden has captured the exuberance as well as the shadows and emotional bruises of a broken family. But this isn’t a love story, it’s the story of old-fashioned matchmaking by two grandmothers.
The second part moves quicker than the first. I enjoyed the meetings between Diana and Princess Margaret. The pace, and sadness, picks up after the engagement when Diana moves into an empty, soulless Buckingham Palace; foreshadowing the days her body would lay at rest at St James’s Palace before her state funeral in 1997.
A poignancy hangs over this tale, the knowledge of the marriage’s failure and Diana’s death. Also the sadness of Charles, trapped in his role, unable to marry the woman he loves, forced into marriage by the need to marry and produce an heir. But The Princess is Diana’s story.
Though young and naïve in this book, she was also smart and not afraid to challenge the status quo. Her influence can be seen in the royal family today. Holden ends her story in 1992, the divorce was finalised in 1996. The book is packed with familiar incidences and quotations mixed in with many inventions. The story of how the famous photograph was taken of her in a transparent skirt at her nursery school in Pimlico, her sister Sarah saying, ‘Your face is on the tea towels,’ the Emmanuels taking in the waist of her wedding dress at every fitting.
Holden gets the tone of Diana’s voice spot-on. So familiar from page one from her public appearances and recordings, it is clear that the spoken words on the page, and the inner thoughts, belong to Diana.
Not as compelling as I expected, perhaps because the story is so well known. The Princess seems to end when it is just getting going.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

And here’s my review of THE DUCHESS, also by Wendy Holden.

If you like this, try:-
‘Shrines of Gaiety’ by Kate Atkinson
‘The Forgotten Sister’ by Nicola Cornick
‘The Heiress’ by Molly Greeley

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE PRINCESS by @Wendy_Holden https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7pI via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-