The Princess

July 1, 2023

Young Diana Spencer is in love with the idea of love. Having no contact with their mother after a custody battle, Diana and her three siblings are being haphazardly raised by their father and a series of boarding schools. At one boarding school, she befriends an outsider, Sandy, and introduces her to the charms of Barbara Cartland's romance novels. Sandy is surprised by Diana's family's connections--Diana grew up playing with the Princes Andrew and Edward, and her grandmother knew the queen. Eventually, Sandy and Diana lose touch, only meeting again in 1992. At this point, the now Princess Diana recounts how her marriage to Prince Charles was orchestrated by figures like Diana's grandmother, the Queen Mother, Prince Charles's valet, and even press members. As she tells Sandy, it was too late by the time it was the eve of her wedding (with Diana realizing that Charles still only loved Camilla) to call the event off; Diana's face was already on the tea towels. VERDICT Holden's (The Duchess) unique framing device allows readers to get an intimate look at the early life of Princess Di, giving them a fresh perspective on a woman whom many people feel they already know.--Jennie Mills

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July 1, 2023
More than two decades after her death, Diana, Princess of Wales, still has a hold on our collective memory. Holden (The Royal Governess and The Duchess, both 2021) takes some familiar stories about Diana and tells them from her point of view, suggesting that her love of romance novels, particularly those by her step-grandmother, the redoubtable Dame Barbara Cartland, colored her view of the world. The novel takes place during several periods in the Princess' life, including her childhood and boarding school days, her time as a "Sloane Ranger" (the British term for preppy bourgeois) living with her girlfriends, and her brief courtship with the Prince of Wales and subsequent marriage and divorce. Among the novel's central themes is that the 1981 royal marriage was the product not of love, but of the machinations of powerful people who had a vested interest in finding a "suitable" bride for the heir to the throne. Full of delicious details and spot-on portrayals of several familiar royal personages, this delicate, sometimes wistful story will delight fans of historical fiction and British royalty.

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