You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
My copy of this book arrived on the day that one of the weekend broadsheets reviewed five ‘Diana’ books. Doubts were expressed in that paper as to whether there was room for yet another: a viewpoint in sympathy with my own Republican leanings. I therefore swallowed hard as I opened this book but then surprised myself by becoming very engaged with the creativity of the fifteen authors. For this is not just another ‘Diana’ book despite it being openly inspired by the events surrounding her death. It is a study of a moment in time which helped us learn more about the mould in which our society is cast, a moment in which thousands responded to their unconscious and lined the streets with mourners.
Diana's death was not the first time ordinary people rose to protect the wife of a Prince of Wales they intuited had been wronged. In 1820 Queen Caroline who married and became estranged from George IV before he was crowned was denied a Royal funeral at his behest. Crowds gathered and formed themselves into her guard ensuring that her body, being carried en route to the channel port on its way to Brunswick, was granted the respect due. By blocking the route prescribed by the Crown they ensured that the coffin was solemnly drawn through the City of London. Over a century later the response from the crowd was such as to make sure the body of Diana was removed from a private ‘chapel of rest’ to one of the court chapels to transform the planned ‘private’ burial into one of the most public for decades.