{"id":85013,"date":"2025-05-08T16:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/85013\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:08:09","slug":"10-silly-things-we-learned-from-edward-whites-new-book-dianaworld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/85013\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Silly Things We Learned from Edward White\u2019s New Book \u2018Dianaworld\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

As its title suggests, Dianaworld, the new book from Edward White, author of The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock, about Diana, Princess of Wales, is not a biography<\/a>. At least, not only \u2013 rather, it is a consideration of the phenomenon that was, and is, Diana Spencer, from the lofty mythology to the kitschy merch, and the rabid obsession with the People\u2019s Princess that continues to this day. White\u2019s approach is admirably even-handed \u2013 it\u2019s more historiography than hagiography \u2013 and he brings in not just the published accounts by former friends, staff or royal correspondents, but diary entries from the great unwashed (who had many thoughts, it seems!) to give some sense of how, and why, she provoked the strength of feeling that she did. <\/p>\n

Dianaworld: An Obsession<\/p>\n

\"Dianaworld:<\/a><\/p>\n

But in amongst the reminiscences and the retellings are some tidbits that perhaps the ardent \u201cDianaists\u201d will know all about, but to the more casual reader were surprising, sometimes even actively eye-popping. Here are 10 of the silliest: <\/p>\n

Diana was distantly related to the actress Glenn Close.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is of no surprise that a young woman who was betrothed to the future King of England would find her lineage under scrutiny, but among the occasionally specious names with which whom she was sometimes connected \u2013 Audrey Hepburn, Arthur Scargill, the Marquis de Sade \u2013 the Fatal Attraction star\u2019s connection to Diana was legit enough to make it into a PBS documentary. <\/p>\n

A newspaper in Dundee once reported on the wind blowing her car door shut.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the height of Diana-mania, any small non-story could become major news, including the \u201ccar door blowing shut\u201d scoop above. Another story, about the fact she bit her fingernails, made the Liverpool Echo\u2019s front page. <\/p>\n

She could have brought about the demise of Vivienne Westwood.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gobby Sex Pistols manager and World\u2019s End co-owner Malcolm McLaren claimed that when Diana came to the King\u2019s Road shop to buy Vivienne Westwood clothing, he feared the label would be \u201cruined\u201d by attracting \u201cevery would-be wannabe Diana Spencer on the Fulham Road.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had a big head. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Literally, that is: milliner Frederick Fox once apparently likened it to a rugby ball, saying it \u201ccame to a point in the front and very big at the back\u2026 Very difficult head to fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

She single-handedly saved the thermal underwear industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By once remarking that she wore thermal undergarments on cold days, she allegedly sent their sales skyrocketing. Long-johns for all! <\/p>\n

She could have starred in The Bodyguard 2.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Such was the appetite for Diana in America, that Hollywood tapped her up to appear in the sequel to the Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner movie mega-hit. <\/p>\n

She owned a vibrator called \u201cLe gaget\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tr\u00e8s chic!<\/p>\n

She liked a food fight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Diana and Dodi Al Fayed, her last lover, with whom she was killed in that fatal car crash in Paris in 1997, allegedly fell in love at a dinner at which, for reasons best understood by the upper classes, edible projectiles were thrown. The Queen Mother, apparently, was also fond of pinging peas at the dining room chandelier. <\/p>\n

She once went to the Vauxhall Tavern in drag.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apparently not one to turn down an outing, Diana put on sunglasses, a camo jacket and a leather cap to hit up the famed gay night spot with Kenny Everett and Freddie Mercury. (Apocryphal or not, the story has since become to plot of a cabaret musical, Royal Vauxhall.)<\/p>\n

The Syrian Minister of Defence sent her a horse.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Among the many people to have had unhealthy infatuations with Diana was General Mustafa Tlass, who sent her gifts \u2013 including a painting of herself and said horse \u2013 and claimed that she\u2019d offered to visit him for four days in return for $28m. Weirdly, she never went.<\/p>\n

‘Dianaworld’ by Edward White is out now (Allen Lane)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As its title suggests, Dianaworld, the new book from Edward White, author of The Twelve Lives of Alfred…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,40950,40952,14732,77,3989,1330,40951,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-85013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-content-type-reviews","10":"tag-contentid-9e6ee1c6-bba4-494f-8b18-b657e07a7f7c","11":"tag-displaytype-long-form-article","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hasproduct-true","14":"tag-locale-gb","15":"tag-shorttitle-10-silly-things-from-new-book-dianaworld","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114473081596718874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}