The Di Complex

Death when it comes so dramatically and tragically demands a single, simple explanation. Nothing as distasteful as complexity should spoil collective global grief. In a world where public life seems over-full with villains and scoundrels, we require, nay demand, a sublime and spiritually beautiful princess who is "caring, compassionate, giving, warm, loving...." To suggest that she could be all these things and simultaneously "cunning, scheming, vindictive, deceitful, manipulative..." would come perilously close to blasphemy.

Consider Charles and his interests: Hinduism, Edwardian architecture, classical English, the plight of inner cities, the degradation of the environment, polo. Consider Diana and her interests: shopping, hugging, high fashion, pop stars, astrology, jogging. These two people were so diametrically different, marital disaster was inevitable. It was the broken marriage, and the squalid infighting which accompanied it, that initially spurred Diana towards humanitarian work.

I believe the best and most honest way to remember Diana is to accept that she was enormously complex and an enormously sad human being living life in the fast lane. Only then do Auden's grand lines make a fitting memorial: "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with the muffled drum, Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come."