The People's Princess?

The things I do for history... first, a confession. I was a childhood monarchist. Well, not so much a monarchist as a hard-core Diana fan. As an eight-year old, I watched the Royal Wedding with adoration (that dress! that train!) and I kept several scrapbooks full of pictures of 'Lady Di', cut from women's magazines (and because - oh joy! -  my parents owned a newsagency, I had an endless supply of mags to feed by habit). I soon grew out of my scrapbook habit, but I do remember where I was when she died in 1997 and watched her funeral with fascination and, if I'm honest, a touch of sadness.  So when it was announced that this exhibition was coming to Sydney, I thought that I should go along (in the interests of history, of course). I could persuade no-one to go with me (strange, that) so yesterday morning, I trudged up to the museum, joined the queues, and entered into the museum's hallowed, dimly lit Diana space.

This has got to be one of the strangest exhibitions I have ever seen. Organised by the Spencer family (or more correctly, the family estate at Althorp - Althorp teatowels for sale in the gift shop at 15 bucks a pop), the exhibition begins with a room of tiaras and jewellery from the Spencer women, before moving onto Diana's childhood artefacts (tap shoes, a hanky with her name sewn onto it, lots of family photos). Her wedding dress is the centrepiece of the exhibition, and it is presented (with photos and wall text) in ways that endorse, rather than challenge the Diana 'fairytale' (you won't be surprised to learn that Camilla Parker Bowles doesn't get any kind of billing here). We have a room of her frocks, a room devoted to her charity work, and then her death, and the funeral (Elton John's awful reworking of 'Candle in the wind' is on constant rotation in here, if the crowds aren't enough to hurry you along). For all of this, there is very little of Diana herself here - it is as if she never existed outside of her dresses or her photographs. It makes you realise how much of what we all knew of her was based on images, rather than even her deeds or words - perhaps she became so famous because in the end, she was a beautiful, vulnerable woman on whom all number of ideas could be projected. I'm sure the princess thing has something to do with her appeal, even though her entire adult life could be seen as a thorough debunking of the very notion of the fairytale ending. The exhibition's gift shop, with a startling lack of irony, was selling, amongst other things,  pink vinyl make-up bags embroidered with 'Princess' and a tiara in silver. Surely Diana was (to put it bluntly) screwed over by the system that granted her her 'princess-hood' - this is the way we celebrate her life?

Yet the most startling parts of the exhibition are those from people who were 'touched' by Diana: the most jaw-dropping room in the exhibit is the cabinets full of condolence books, filled with messages from ordinary people, sent from around the world after her death. If there is anything interesting left to be said about Diana then these books would be a good starting point. If Diana was really 'the people's princess', then I'd love to see someone explore what this meant. Judging by the crushing crowds, and the Museum's collection of stories posted by those who remember her, the popular history of Diana could be written yet.