THE MOURNING PAPERS

Coverage of Princess Diana's death brought out all the finest qualities of the British press, including:

BAD TIMING...

"Troubled Prince William will today demand that his mother Princess Diana dump her playboy lover, Harrods heir Dodi Al-Fayed."
-- Two-page "exclusive" by News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, published hours after the car crash.

"Many of us feel that there is something missing from our lives today... The problem extends to some of the cleverest, wealthiest and most attractive people in the land -- among them Princess Diana."
-- Oliver James attempting "a daring royal psycho-analysis" in the Sunday Times News Review as the front page of the main paper reports her death.

"She [Diana] seems to relish her role as a martyr. God help her if she ever finds happiness -- it would make her miserable."
-- Petronella Wyatt, Express on Sunday, 31 Aug.

"Princess Diana's press relations are now clearly established. Any publicity is good publicity... I'm told she and Dodi are made for each other, both having more brass than brains."
-- Bernard Ingham, Express on Sunday, 31 Aug.

"Just when Diana began to believe that her current romance with likeable playboy Dodi Fayed had wiped out her past liaisons, a new tape recording is doing the rounds of Belgravia dinner parties. And this one is hot, hot, hot! Labelled Squidgygate II, the tape is of a completely different conversation the Princess had with her sometime beau James Gilbey... I must remember to take it up with Diana next time we find ourselves on adjacent running machines at our West London gym."
-- Chris Hutchins celebrates another privacy intrusion, Sunday Mirror, 31 Aug.

"It's a pity Gucci don't make designer face zips, then when Princess Diana was on the verge of opening her ill-informed mouth and causing an international incident (an increasingly frequent occurrence these days) she could just zip her trap shut... The Princess, I fear, suffers from the 'Open Gob Before Brain Engages' syndrome -- a condition which afflicts the trivial and the brain dead"
--The deeply untrivial Carole Malone, Sunday Mirror, 31 Aug.

"Diana has said publicly that the Tories were hopeless... It always slightly amazes me how the press picks up on stuff like this as if it were compelling genius insight of Aristotelian wisdom and Shavian wit, as opposed to the witterings of a woman who, if her IQ were five points lower, would have to be watered daily."
-- The Shavian wit of "Mrs Blair's Diary", the Observer, 31 Aug.

HUMBUG...

"The sight of a paunchy playboy groping a scantily-dressed Diana must appal and humiliate Prince William.,. As the mother of two young sons she ought to have more decorum and sense. She has for many years criticised Prince Charles for being a distant, undemonstrative father. In the long run he's been the more responsible parent and certainly inflicted less damage, anguish and hurt."
-- Lynda Lee-Potter, Daily Mail, 27 Aug.

"Throughout their childhood she gave her sons endless loving cuddles... She adored her children."
-- Lynda Lee-Potter, Daily Mail, 1 Sept.

STATEMENTS OF THE OBVIOUS...

"How must Charles, Prince of Wales be feeling in the days after the tragic death of Diana?... Prince Charles's first feelings, like most people's, will be shock, followed by sadness... And then his concern will be for his children..."
--Sarah Bradford, "royal biographer", Daily Mail.

"However the Prince of Wales broke the news to his sons, his words will inevitably have started the grief response."
-- Thomas "A Doctor Writes" Stuttaford, Times.

"Things will never be the same again."
-- Suzanne Moore, Independent.

"One thing is certain in the aftershock of the death of Diana, and that will be her lasting impact on the royal family."
-- Henry Porter, Guardian.

"It is probably too early to get the whole thing into perspective. But one thing is clear: You cannot be a sentient human being and not feel grief and horror at Diana's death."
-- Ben Pimlott, Guardian.

"It could all have been so different"
-- Lynda Lee-Potter, Daily Mail.

AVOIDING THE QUESTION

"There are a number of unanswered questions about the exact behaviour of French photographers and why Diana's car was going at 100 mph in a 30 mph limit... But today is not the time to analyse or discuss these important issues."
-- Editorial, Mirror.

"The question of privacy will not go away for the British press -- nor, moreover, for the media as a whole... But these are issues for another day." -- Editorial, Daily Mail.

"Who is to blame? Why do we feel 'so great a sense of loss? What will be the implications?... Such problems are for tomorrow, not today."
-- Ben Pimlott, Express.

RAMPANT EGOS...

"She knew that whatever I said and whatever I might write it would always be what I thought, and sometimes, necessarily, it would be critical. So she trusted me and revealed herself constantly..."
-- Richard Kay, Daily Mail.

"Some of us -- myself included -- were fortunate enough to meet her... "
--Jane Moore, Woman's editor of the Sun.

"To meet her, to talk to her, was to enjoy the company of a woman whose charisma was quite extraordinary... I remember how at lunch one day she suddenly stopped talking as her eyes glazed and her mind turned in on itself. It only lasted for a moment but it was disquieting while it lasted. It provided a disconcerting glimpse into the insecurities with which she was never truly able to come to terms."
-- Ross Benson, the Express, unaware that Di's eyes might have been glazing over due to his sparkling company.

"After her divorce Diana felt able to invite to lunch in Kensington Palace various friends and advisers. I was one who fell into that category."
-- Anthony Holden, Express.

"Diana, Princess of Wales, is dead. I can't believe I've written those words, but as I do so I am crying... She was not a friend as such. Our relationship was just professional. But it went a lot deeper than this... Our lives were inextricably intertwined."
-- James Whitaker, Mirror.

"Diana, the most famous face of the century. Diana, the woman whom [sic] over 17 years had become a friend"
-- Kent Gavin, chief photographer of the Mirror.

"Everyone talked about Diana's kindness... Perhaps it's a little soon but I was sad no one mentioned what an amusing character she was, too. At a small private lunch I attended..."
-- Peter McKay airs his "forthright views", Daily Mail.

"I had lunch at Kensington Palace after she became semi-detached, in the early Nineties. It was wildly exciting..."
-- Vicki Woods, Guardian.

"The House of Windsor has never really recovered from the revelations in Andrew Morton's seminal book Diana. Her True Story, which I serialised in the Sunday Times in 1992."
--Andrew Neill, Guardian.

...AND CLICHÉS GALORE

"A Nation Weeps for its Queen of Hearts"
-- Headline, Express.

"Queen of All Our Hearts."
-- Headline, Sun.

"Like a candle in the wind, the flame that burned so bright will burn no more."
-- Editorial, Sun.

"Frailty, the apparent brave frailty of a candle in the wind, was always Diana's supreme public quality."
-- John Ezard, Guardian.

"There, in a stark, concrete underpass, lie the tangled remains of a Mercedes limousine. That so glamorous a life should be ended in such a mundane place is the greatest of ironies. Yet it was here, beneath the streets of Paris, that a light to millions around the world was extinguished."
-- Jack Gee and John Coles, Express.

"A beacon of light has been extinguished."
-- Lady Thatcher, Sun.

"A radiant, potently attractive light has been snuffed out, leaving us stunned and grieving."
-- Editorial, Express.

"A comet streaked across the sky of public life and entranced the world."
-- Simon Jenkins, Times.

"She is the brightest star in the sky tonight."
-- Lord Archer, Sun.

"A bright star has suddenly been blotted out."
-- Lord Hurd, Express.

"She was 'a gem of purest ray serene'."
-- Paul Johnson, Daily Mail.

"It is a light which we will never see again."
-- Brian Reade, Mirror.

"She was the butterfly who shone with the light of glamour which illuminated all our lives."
-- Ross Benson, Express.


"I'll always remember where I was when Diana died... "