The Princess by Wendy Holden – a Review

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Description:
Britain, 1961: A bouncing blond baby is born to Viscount Althorp, heir to the Spencer earldom, and his wife Frances. Diana grows up amid the fallout of her parents’ messy divorce. She struggles at school. Moving to London, she takes menial jobs as a cleaner and nanny. Her refuge throughout is romantic novels. She dreams of falling in love and being rescued by a handsome prince.

In royal circles, there is concern about the Prince of Wales. Nearly 30, Charles remains unmarried; the right girl needs to be found, and fast. She must be young, aristocratic and come to the royal family without any past liaisons.

The eighteen-year-old Diana Spencer is just about the only candidate. Her desperation to be loved dovetails perfectly with royal desperation for a bride. But as the ruthless Palace machine starts up, there are challenges for Diana to face plus mysteries she can’t fathom, from the strangeness of life within the palace walls to a certain Mrs. Parker Bowles. Can her romantic dream survive the forces that shape her into a global icon?

Review:

The Princess by Wendy Holden is the 3^rd book in her Royal Outsiders series.  I have not read the previous two books, but wanted to read about Princess Diana during her early years until she married Prince Charles. This was a very good historical fiction of Diana Spencer’s life at a private school, being lonely, and a lover of romance novels; which will eventually lead as she gets older, to being recruited to become the wife of Prince Charles.

We meet Diana who attends a boarding school, and connects with Sandy, a quiet and underprivileged girl, who has no friends. In a short time, Diana and Sandy will become best friends, and Diana brings Sandy (who is an orphan) to her home during the holidays.  With her parents being divorced, Diana is lonely, and it is Sandy (early on), as well as other friends at a private school, who she makes feel important. Her older friends tease her, as she is totally a romantic, always dreaming of falling in love with a handsome prince.

The Royal family is determined for Prince Charles to marry soon, as he as now 30 years old, and they need to find the right girl for him; the girl has to be young, aristocratic, with no previous liaisons. Charles is not interested in anyone, other than Camilla Parker Bowles (his mistress), but the royal family wants a sweet innocent young lady.  The Queen Mother and Prince Phillip, with help from Stephen Barry (Charles Valet) to work together to arrange Diana Spencer (18 years old), who comes across as a perfect candidate.

Once Diana met Charles, she immediately fell in love with him, since she always believed in love.  But, on occasion, she will be invited to events and fall all over Charles, who was really not interested; especially since he was 30, and Diana was only 18. Though Diana spends time with the royal family, especially the Queen Mother, she still felt her love for Charles; ignoring his constant travelling and being away a lot, not to mention his indifference, and eventually his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

In 1992, years after her marriage to Prince Charles, Diana sees her old friend Sandy, and together she discusses her life as the Princess of Wales; and how the royal family was truly behind pushing Charles to marry Diana, and how her life was not what she thought it would be.

The Princess was very well written by Wendy Holden, giving us historical look at how Diana came to be The Princess of Wales.  This was destined to be an ill-fated marriage, filled with our knowledge, sadness and sympathy for Diana.  Early on, Diana was very naïve, as she always dreamed of a fairy tale with a Prince.  Holden gave us a beautiful and sympathetic portrait of everyone’s memory of the People’s Princess. I really enjoyed this book.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher