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Diana: The Last Year
by Donald SpotoFor Diana, her final year was in many ways the most fascinating and insightful of her life. It was a turbulent, often amazing period in which she formally severed her marriage ties to the heir to the British throne, fell passionately in love with Dodi al-Fayed, and truly began to come into her own after years of personal adversity. In the first hours and days after the news of Diana's death in Paris shocked the world, major media outlets from CNN to NBC turned to Donald Spoto for help in articulating the meaning of the tragedy and understanding its effect on the British monarchy, the worldwide public who admired and loved her, and, most important, her own family. In Diana: The Last Year, Spoto tells for the first time the complete story of a woman in conflict. Diana was driven by a philanthropic desire to relieve suffering and change the world for the better. But she was also determined to make up for a youth that was taken from her, at the age of nineteen, when she entered the restrictive and, from her perspective, decidedly chilly House of Windsor. Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, Diana in her last year was re-creating her public and private self.
Diana: Princess of the People
by Tanya Lee StoneOne of the most well-known figures of our time, Diana, Princess of Wales, lived a short but meaningful life. She used her royal status and high profile to help many people and to give the royal family a human, approachable face. This book follows her life from childhood to its sudden end and examines the challenges she faced being in the public eye.
The Diana Chronicles
by Tina BrownTen years after her death, Princess Diana remains a mystery. Was she "the people's princess," who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions? Or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy? Only Tina Brown, former editor-in-chief of Tatler, England's glossiest gossip magazine; Vanity Fair; and The New Yorker could possibly give us the truth. Updated with a new foreword.
Diana in Private: The Princess Nobody Knows
by Colin B. Campbell"Everyone knows the public Diana: the sweet, shy English girl with "a history but no past" who married the Prince of Wales in a storybook wedding. But what of Diana in private? Was she really just an innocent kindergarten teacher when she and Prince Charles got engaged? Was she truly in love with her fiance - and how did he feel about her? And what went on behind the palace gates after the honeymoon was over?" "While Diana's previous biographers have been firmly outside her inner circle, Lady Colin Campbell, with personal connections to European and British royalty, takes us inside that circle to bring us the first truly informed account of the Princess's life and marriage." "Here is Diana in intimate detail - from the child caught up in her parents' scandalous divorce, to the savvy flirt who captured a Prince. ("If she'd been a wild animal," confides a relative, "she'd have made an excellent hunter.") Here is the lonely teenager roller-skating through Buckingham Palace, and the newlywed who thought her new house in the Cotswolds a terrible comedown from her ancestral home. And here is Diana the woman - from her transformation into a famous beauty to the truth about her relationships with other men both before and after marriage." "With extraordinary candor and sympathy - and, above all, with an insider's understanding - Lady Colin Campbell goes beyond the myth of the fairytale princess to unveil the real Diana."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess
by Sally Bedell SmithDiana in Search of Herself is the first authoritative biography of one of the most fabled women of the century. Even those who knew Princess Diana will be surprised by author Sally Bedell Smith's insightful and haunting portrait of Diana's inner life.For all that has been written about Diana--the books, the commemorative magazines, the thousands of newspaper articles--we have lacked a sophisticated understanding of the woman, her motivations, and her extreme needs. Most books have been exercises in hagiography or character assassination, sometimes both in the same volume. Sally Bedell Smith, the acclaimed biographer, former New York Times reporter, and Vanity Fair contributing editor, has written the first truly balanced and nuanced portrait of the Princess of Wales, in all her emotional complexity.Drawing on scores of interviews with friends and associates who had not previously talked about Diana, Ms. Smith explores the events and relationships that shaped the Princess, the flashpoints that sent her careening through life, her deep feelings of unworthiness, her view of men, and her perpetual journey toward a better sense of self. By making connections not previously explored, this book allows readers to see Diana as she really was, from her birth to her tragic death.Original in its reporting and surprising in its conclusions about the severity of Diana's mental-health problems, Diana in Search of Herself is the smartest and most substantive biography ever written about this mesmerizing woman.NOTE: This edition does not include photographs.
Diana & Jackie: Maidens, Mothers, Myths
by Jay MulvaneyHistory has seen only a few women so magical, so evanescent, that they captured the spirit and imagination of their times. Diana, Princess of Wales and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis were two of these rare creatures. They were the most famous women of the twentieth century--admired, respected, even adored at times; rebuked, mocked and reviled at others. Separated by nationality and a generation apart, they led two surprisingly similar lives.Both were the daughters of acrimonious divorce. Both wed men twelve years their senior, men who needed "trophy brides" to advance their careers. Both married into powerful and domineering families, who tried, unsuccessfully, to tame their willful independence. Both inherited power through marriage and both rebelled within their official roles, forever crushing the archetype. And both revolutionized dynasties.And yet in many ways they were completely different: Jackie lived her life with an English "stiff upper lip"--never complaining, never explaining in the face of immense public curiosity. Diana lived her life with an American "quivering lower lip"--with televised tell-alls, exposing her family drama to a world eager for every detail.These two lives have been well documented but never before compared. And never before examined in the context of their times. Jay Mulvaney, author of Kennedy Weddings and Jackie: The Clothes of Camelot, probes the lives of these two twentieth century icons and discovers:-The nature of their personalities forged from the cradle by their relationships with their fathers, Black Jack Bouvier and Johnny Spencer-Their early years, and their early relationships with men.-Their marriages, and the truth behind the lies, the betrayals and the arrangements.-Their greatest achievements: motherhood.-Their prickly relationships with their august mothers-in-law, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II-Their lives as single women, working mothers.Their roles as icons and archetypes.Graced with never before seen photographs from many private collections, and painstakingly researched, Diana and Jackie presents these two remarkable and unique women as they have never been seen before.
Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler's Angel
by Anne de CourcyDiana Mosley was a society beauty who fell from grace when she left her husband, brewery heir Bryan Guinness, for Sir Oswald Mosley, an admirer of Mussolini and a notorious womanizer. This horrified her family and scandalized society.In 1933, Diana met the new German leader, Adolf Hitler. They became close friends and he attended her wedding as the guest of honor. During the war, the Mosleys' association with Hitler led them to be arrested and interned for three and a half years. Diana's relationships with Hitler and Mosley defined her life in the public eye and marked her as a woman who possessed a singular lack of empathy for those less blessed at birth.Anne de Courcy's revealing biography chronicles one of the most intriguing, controversial women of the twentieth century. It is a riveting tell-all memoir of a leading society hostess, a woman with intimate access to the highest literary, political, and social circles of her time. Written with Mosley's exclusive cooperation and based upon hundreds of hours of taped interviews and unprecedented access to her private papers, letters, and diaries, Lady Mosley's only stipulation was that the book not be published until after her death.
Diana of the Dunes: The True Story of Alice Gray
by Janet Zenke EdwardsThe true story of a woman who abandoned Chicago for a secluded life in a remote shack—and became an early twentieth-century sensation. In the fall of 1915, an educated woman named Alice Gray traded her life in bustling Chicago for a solitary journey in the remote sand hills of northwest Indiana along Lake Michigan. Living in a fisherman&’s shack, she measured herself against nature rather than society&’s rigid conventions. Her audacity so bewitched reporters and a curious public that she became a legend in her own time—she became &“Diana of the Dunes.&” Over a century later, the story is still a popular folktale, but questions remain. Who was Alice Gray? Why did this Phi Beta Kappa scholar leave Chicago? What happened to her soul mate, Paul Wilson? In this first-ever book about Diana of the Dunes, the mystery of Alice Gray is revealed by those who knew her and through new research. Excerpts from her dunes diary are published here for the first time since 1918. In these pages, rediscover the legend of Diana of the Dunes—and learn the truth.
Diana Princess of Wales (A True Book (Relaunch))
by Robin S. DoakA True Book: Queens and Princess tells the stories of women who were born or married into royalty. Who were these women who ruled nations and kingdoms and touched the lives of their people? Being a queen or princess is more than sitting on a throne. A True Book: Queens and Princess tells the stories of women who were born or married into royalty. Who were these women who ruled nations and kingdoms and touched the lives of their people? They led sensational and sometimes luxurious lives. They also made sacrifices. They impacted war and peace, politics and economics, culture and tradition. These queens and princesses were so much more than their bejeweled crowns!With engaging text, primary source material, infographics, photography, and artwork, Queens and Princesses follows these vibrant women from childhood to the end of their reign. Long a source of fascination, Queens and Princesses introduces royals from the ancient world to contemporary times...all of whom influenced their era and left a compelling legacy.Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, was known as the "People's Princess". She influenced the United Kingdom's current royal family of Windsor and helped modernize the monarchy. Princess Diana led what seemed like a storybook life. Her devotion to her young sons was legendary. But all was not as it appeared. While known as a fierce trailblazer, advocate for the under-served, and style icon, Diana was emotionally fragile. This contradiction endeared her to women everywhere. Diana's death at age 36 is a mournful touchstone for our era.
Diana, Princess of Wales: Young Royalty (Childhood of World Figures Series)
by Beatrice GormleyDiana Spencer grew up to be the princess of Wales. But when she was a little girl, she did not dream she would become a princess. When she was still quite young, her older sisters went off to boarding school and her parents decided to live apart. This was very difficult for sensitive Diana, and her self-esteem began to suffer. Things were not helped when she began feeling inferior to not only an accomplished older sister, but also her clever younger brother. Diana was a good athlete and was gifted at connecting with other people. Still, she struggled to find her place in the world. Diana thought marrying the prince of Wales would make everything okay in her life. Joining the royal family did bring her some happiness, but in other ways it brought her tremendous pain. Read about the little girl who struggled to find herself and became one of the most famous and beloved women in history.
Diana, Princess Of Wales
by Beatrice GormleyA biography for young readers of the late Princess of Wales.
Diana Rigg: The Biography
by Kathleen TracyRecently voted the "sexiest television star of all time" by TV Guide readers, Diana Rigg is best known as the brilliant and seductive British agent, Emma Peel on The Avengers. The Tony and Emmy award-winning actress is famous not only for her acting talent, but for her keen intelligence and strong opinions as well. Diana Rigg biographer Kathleen Tracy reveals the fascinating professional and personal life of this rebellious, outspoken icon of feminism—from her childhood in India and early days with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London to her tenure on The Avengers, her role in the Bond film On Her Maiesty's Secret Service and her distinguished stage career.
Diana Ross: Star Supreme (Women of Our Time)
by James HaskinsFrom the Book jacket: From the Author: I started writing books for young people when I was an elementary-school teacher. I wanted my students to read more, and I began to write books about things that they were interested in. They liked to read about people who were famous and how they got to be famous. Most of my students were black, and I wanted them to have books about black people who had overcome poverty and discrimination. These kinds of books were not available when I was growing up in the South. In fact, I could not even use the public library, because I was black. Although Diana Ross grew up in Detroit, not the South, she had to overcome a lot of barriers because she was poor and black. I have followed her career ever since she began singing with the Supremes. When she played Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues, I became even more interested. She was "stretching" her talents. She wasn't content just to be a singer. I feel that she has a lot of courage and has taken many risks in her career. Many newspaper and magazine articles have been written about Diana Ross. Many of these articles are on microfilm or in large, bound magazine volumes in the library. It was interesting to go through these articles and read what she said years ago. It was fun to look at pictures from twenty years back. Styles in hair and clothing have changed so much. People change, too. The important thing is whether or not they feel good about the changes, whether or not they are able to grow in spirit. Diana Ross has. J.H.
Diana Ross: A Biography
by J. Randy TaraborelliThere is only one Diana Ross. This is her story.Drawn from hundreds of interviews conducted over four decades, Diana Ross paints an unforgettable picture of an extraordinary and often controversial legend--a pop music goddess, acclaimed actress, loving mother, Civil Rights trailblazer, and consummate entertainer. Beautiful and fascinating, she is her own invention--the definition of a superstar."A riveting celebrity dish-fest." --Washington PostFirst-time revelations abound, from the tough decisions she made while having Berry Gordy's baby and the real reasons behind the break-up of the Supremes to her triumphant recovery after a surprising DUI driving arrest and her gala appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors."The dish on Motown's most famous songstress." --The Dallas Morning NewsBestselling biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli boldly explores Diana Ross's troubled relationships and the heartbreak she feels compelled to hide, bringing into focus a complex personality too often obscured by the bright lights of fame. Rich with detail and personal anecdotes, and fully up-to-date, Diana Ross is both definitive and delightful--the ultimate biography that Miss Ross so richly deserves. "A complete, up-to-date history of the star." -- Associated Press190,000 Words
Diana Taurasi: Hoops Legend (Sports Illustrated Kids Stars of Sports)
by Shane FrederickAs a child, Diana Taurasi was awkward and gangly. But as soon as she started playing basketball, she learned that her size and height gave her an advantage on the basketball court. Since winning the WBNA Rookie of the Year title in 2004, Taurasi has come a long way. Discover more about Taurasi's highlights on the court in this action-packed biography in the Stars of Sports series.
Diana, William, and Harry: The Heartbreaking Story of a Princess and Mother
by James Patterson Chris MooneyInstant New York Times Bestseller! &“She was the best mother in the world,&” said Princes William and Harry at Diana&’s 10-year memorial. &“Entertaining and persuasive,&” (Publishers Weekly) this is the first big book about the private Diana, the mother of two princes.&“Royal fans will devour this well-paced biography that gives new insight into the House of Windsor. You&’ll tear through it by sundown and walk away thinking about the Princess of Wales and her two sons with new perspective .&” –Men&’s Journal From the moments William and Harry are born into the House of Windsor, they become their young mother&’s whole world. I&’ve got two very healthy, strong boys. I realize how incredibly lucky I am, Diana reminds herself every morning. But even the Princess of Wales questions, Am I a good mother? Diana&’s faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: one son destined to be King of England and another determined to find his own way. She teaches them to honor royal tradition, even while daring to break it. &“Sometimes I&’d like a time machine…&” Diana says as William and Harry grow up, never imagining they&’d have less than a lifetime together. Even after she&’s gone, her sons follow their mother&’s lead—and her heart. As the years pass and William and Harry grow into adulthood and form families of their own, they carry on Diana&’s name, her likeness, and her incomparable spirit. &“James Patterson applies his writerly skills to real-life history with novelistic style&” (People) in this deeply personal and revealing biography of the world&’s most storied family, from the world&’s #1 bestselling author.
Diana's Star
by Diana BertholfSays Diana Bertholf: "My family is Jewish. Cathy, a girl I considered my friend, told me, 'My mother says you are a Jew and your relatives killed Jesus.' Once a teacher in an early grade gently said, 'I always pray for my little Jewish students. The Bible says to pray for the Jews.' Wasn't I OK the way I was? "These incidents ate at me like a piece of sand in an oyster and a shell of confusion and rage began to build up around my spirit. "When I was twenty-two, I read the Bible. . . . The story in that book amazed me with its simplicity and straightforwardness. It seemed an honest, reasonable way to believe and to behave. Not that it negated my Jewishness; rather, it added to my understanding and broadened it. The Messiah had, indeed, already come." This is a story of change and growth, of alienation from family and personal turmoil, of searching and finding. Diana says, "How precious it is to serve a living God who knows us and watches over us tenderly. It is like walking on a path and being guided by the north star."
Diana's White House Garden
by Elisa CarboneDiana Hopkins lived in a white house. THE White House.World War II is in full force across the seas. It's 1943, President Roosevelt is in office, and Diana's father, Harry Hopkins, is his chief advisor. And Diana wants to be part of the war effort. After some well-intentioned missteps (her quarantine sign on her father's office door was not well-received), the President requests her help with his newest plan for the country's survival: Victory Gardens!From award-winning author Elisa Carbone comes the true story of how Diana Hopkins started her own Victory Garden on the White House lawn under the tutelage of Eleanor Roosevelt. With dedication and patience, she showed the nation that the war effort started first on the homefront.
Diane: A Signature Life
by Diane Von FurstenbergThe frank and compelling story of an extraordinary woman and her adventures in fashion, business, and life.“Most fairy tales end with the girl marrying the prince. That's where mine began,” says Diane Von Furstenberg. Von Furstenberg lived the American Dream before she was thirty, building a multimillion-dollar fashion empire while raising two children and living life in the fast lane. Her wrap dress, a cultural phenomenon in the seventies, hangs in the Smithsonian Institution; her entry into the beauty business in 1979 was as serendipitous and as successful. Von Furstenberg learned her trade in the trenches, crisscrossing the country to make personal appearances at department stores, selling her dresses and cosmetics. That business had its ups and downs, as the fashionista entrepreneur’s unparalleled success became the source of its own undoing and she contended with bankruptcy, the loss of her business, and finally a complete self-reinvention that took her back to the top of the industry. This revealing and contemplative memoir works to make sense of the contradictions of the author’s life: glamour vs. hard work, European vs. American, daughter of a Holocaust survivor vs. wife of an Austro-Italian prince, mother vs. entrepreneur, lover vs. tycoon. She emerges wiser, stronger, and ever more determined never to sacrifice her passion for life.
Diane Arbus: A Biography
by Patricia BosworthBosworth's remarkable look at the life of Diane Arbus, one of the most acclaimed and provocative photographers of her time Diane Arbus became famous for her intimate and unconventional portraits of twins, dwarfs, sideshow performers, eccentrics, and everyday "freaks." Condemned by some for voyeurism, praised by others for compassion, she was nonetheless a transformative figure in twentieth-century photography and hailed by all for her undeniable genius. Her life was cut short when she committed suicide in 1971 at the peak of her career. In the first complete biography of Arbus, author Patricia Bosworth traces the arc of Arbus's remarkable life: her sheltered upper-class childhood and passionate, all-consuming marriage to Allan Arbus; her roles as wife and devoted mother; and her evolution from fashion photographer to critically acclaimed artist--one who forever altered the boundaries of photography.
Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer
by Arthur LubowThe definitive biography of the beguiling Diane Arbus, one of the most influential and important photographers of the twentieth century, a brilliant and absorbing exposition that links the extraordinary arc of her life to her iconic photographs.Diane Arbus brings to life the full story of one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century, a visionary who revolutionized photography and altered the course of contemporary art with her striking, now iconic images. Arbus comes startlingly to life on these pages, a strong-minded child of unnerving originality who grew into a formidable artist and forged an intimacy with her subjects that has inspired generations of artists. Arresting, unsettling, and poignant, her photographs stick in our minds. Why did these people fascinate her? And what was it about her that captivated them?It is impossible to understand the transfixing power of Arbus’s photographs without understanding her life story. Arthur Lubow draws on exclusive interviews with Arbus’s friends, lovers, and colleagues, on previously unknown letters, and on his own profound critical understanding of photography, to explore Arbus’s unique perspective. He deftly traces Arbus’s development from a wealthy, sexually precocious free spirit into first a successful New York fashion photographer, and then a singular artist who coaxed hidden truths from her subjects. Lubow reveals that Arbus’s profound need not only to see her subjects but to be seen by them drove her to forge unusually close bonds with these people, helping her discover the fantasies, pain, and heroism within each of them.Diane Arbus is the definitive biography of this unique, hugely influential artist. This magnificently absorbing, sensitive treatment of a singular personality brushes aside the clichés that have long surrounded Arbus and her work to capture a brilliant portrait of this seminal artist whose work has immeasurably shaped art and modern culture.Lubow’s Diane Arbus finally does justice to Arbus, and brings to life the story and art of one of the greatest American artists in history.Diane Arbus includes a 16-page black-and-white photo insert.
Diane von Furstenberg: A Life Unwrapped
by Gioia DilibertoA sweeping biography of one of the most influential and controversial legends of late twentieth-century fashion, an iconic designer whose colorful creations, including the “wrap dress,” captured the modern feminist spirit.The daughter of a Holocaust survivor and wife of an Austrian nobleman, Diane von Furstenberg burst onto New York’s fashion scene in 1969, and within a few years became an international sensation with her colorful wrap dress in printed jersey. Embraced by millions of American women of all ages, sizes, and shapes, the dress became a cult object and symbol of women’s liberation, tied inexorably to the image of youth, independence, and sex Diane herself projected.In this masterful biography, Gioia Diliberto brings Diane’s extraordinary life into focus, from her post-World-War-II childhood in Belgium, through her rise to the top of the fashion world during the decadent seventies and glamorous go-go eighties, to her humiliating failures both professional and personal, and her remarkable comeback in the nineties. Like Coco Chanel, Diane has always been her own best advertisement. Morphing from a frizzy brunette outsider in a sea of sleek blondes to a stunning pop cultural icon, she embodied the brand she created—“the DVF woman,” a model of self-sufficiency, sensuality, and confidence.Diliberto’s captivating, balanced portrait, based on scores of interviews with Diane’s family, friends, lovers, employees, and the designer herself, explores von Furstenberg’s relationships with her husbands and lovers, and illuminates fashion’s evolution from rare luxury to marketing monster and the development of a uniquely American style. Lively and insightful, the book also explores the larger world of the nation’s elite, where fashion, culture, society, politics, and Hollywood collide. Diane von Furstenberg is a modern fable of self-invention, fame, wealth, failure, and success that mirrors late-twentieth century America itself.
Diari d'Anna Frank
by Ana FrankAquesta és l'edició definitiva del cèlebre Diari d'Anne Frank. El seu text amplia en una quarta part les edicions anteriors i ofereix una visió completa i fidedigna de la terrible odissea viscuda durant la Segona Guerra Mundial per la família Frank Un testimoni únic sobre l'horror i la barbàrie nazi, i sobretot sobre els sentiments i les experiències viscudes per una nena jueva reclosa amb la seva família per fugir de l'Holocaust Després de la invasió d'Holanda, els Frank, comerciants jueus alemanys emigrats a Amsterdam el 1933, es van amagar de la Gestapo en una mansarda connectada a l'edifici on el pare de l'Anne tenia les seves oficines. Eren vuit persones i van romandre-hi recloses des del juny de 1942 fins a l'agost de 1944. En aquell lloc i en les més precàries condicions, l'Anne, una nena detretze anys, va escriure el seu esgarrifós Diari: un testimoni únic en el seu gènere sobre l'horror i la barbàrie nazis, i sobre els sentiments i les experiències que van viure ella mateixa i els seus acompanyants. L'Anne va morir al camp de Bergen-Belsen al març de 1945. El seu Diari no morirà mai. «D'entre tots els qui, al llarg de la història, han parlat en nom de la dignitat humana en temps de sofriment i mort, no hi ha cap veu amb més pes que la de l'Anne Frank.» John F. Kennedy
Diari d'Anna Frank
by Anne FrankAquesta és l'edició definitiva del cèlebre Diari d'Anne Frank. El seu text amplia en una quarta part les edicions anteriors i ofereix una visió completa i fidedigna de la terrible odissea viscuda durant la Segona Guerra Mundial per la família Frank Després de la invasió d'Holanda, els Frank, comerciants jueus alemanys emigrats a Amsterdam el 1933, es van amagar de la Gestapo en una mansarda connectada a l'edifici on el pare de l'Anne tenia les seves oficines. Eren vuit persones i van romandre-hi recloses des del juny de 1942 fins a l'agost de 1944.En aquell lloc i en les més precàries condicions, l'Anne, una nena de tretze anys, va escriure el seu esgarrifós Diari: un testimoni únic en el seu gènere sobre l'horror i la barbàrie nazis, i sobre els sentiments i les experiències que van viure ella mateixa i els seus acompanyants. L'Anne va morir al camp de Bergen-Belsen al març de 1945. El seu Diari no morirà mai.Un testimoni únic sobre l'horror i la barbàrie nazi, i sobretot sobre els sentiments i les experiències viscudes per una nena jueva reclosa amb la seva família per fugir de l'Holocaust. John F. Kennedy va dir...«D'entre tots els qui, al llarg de la història, han parlat en nom de la dignitat humana en temps de sofriment i mort, no hi ha cap veu amb més pes que la de l'Anne Frank.»
Diaries: In Power
by Alan ClarkThe second volume of Alan Clark's bestselling DIARIES, covering the downfall of Margaret ThatcherThe first volume of Alan Clark's diaries, covering two Parliaments during which he served under Margaret Thatcher - until her ousting in a coup which Clark observed closely from the inside - and then under John Major, constitute the most outspoken and revealing account of British political life ever written. Cabinet colleagues, royalty, ambassadors, civil servants and foreign dignitaries are all subjected to Clark's vivid and often wittily acerbic pen, as he candidly records the daily struggle for ascendancy within the corridors of power.