The shock of her death on 31 August 1997 sparked mass public mourning, a crisis within the royal family, and a test of the prime minister Tony Blair’s leadership. A quarter of a century later, how is “the People’s Princess” remembered?
Reporter Tanya Gold goes in search of the woman behind the myths, the movies and the conspiracy theories – visiting the Spencer family home, Althorp, where Diana is buried, and a walking trail of her London haunts and monuments. She meets the keepers of Diana’s flame, including the curator of an online museum of memorabilia (the princess’s Wellington boots, 50 handwritten notes to her hairdresser), a sculptor, a former colleague, and the staff of Madame Tussauds’ waxwork museum, where Diana stands “opposite Henry VIII, who would have executed her”.
This article was originally published in the 26 August-1 September issue of the New Statesman; you can read the text version here.
Written by Tanya Gold and read by Alix Kroeger.
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