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 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.

It’s understandable that her sons have a less nuanced view of Diana. If your beautiful 36-year-old mother dies in a car crash and is mourned—canonized, even—by the whole world, an unblemished picture is frozen that erases everything else. William, 15, and Harry, 12, believed—and still believe—that their mother was martyred by the paparazzi. Everyone has a right to free speech and can write about anything, and anyone they want. But, writing a biography. The book you expect should have interviews, resources, not just newspaper articles. Following on from Diana’s commitment to helping those suffering from HIV/AIDS and the homeless, Harry set up Sentebale, which supports children in Botswana and Lesotho suffering from HIV. William is also the patron of the U.K. homelessness charity Centrepoint, as Diana had been. Princess Diana with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry at Wetherby School. Tim Graham / Getty Images file The first half follows Diana's life from meeting Charles to her death, and I will say that the chapters covering her death and funeral were touching. The second half looks at William and Harry's lives since Diana's death including their education, gap year activities, military careers, romantic relationships, and eventual marriages and children.

From the moments William and Harry are born into the House of Windsor, they become their young mother’s whole world.

A gardener undertakes final preparations for the space ahead of the statue unveiling. Aaron Chown/PA Images/Getty Images Reports of a rift between the siblings have swirled in the British press since 2018, and Harry has previously said that he and William had "been through hell together," but were now on "different paths." With the sad death of Queen Elizabeth, it was more than timely that I had the chance to listen to experiences that involved the royal family. I have no doubt that many other books are or will be written that focus on the British Monarchy.

A year later, Diana responded with a devastating interview on the TV program Panorama. It was here she talked about her bulimia and self-harm, suggested Charles was a dubious prospect as king, admitted to an infidelity or two, and fired that memorable broadside across Camilla’s bow: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” Diana had to be prodded to travel to Eton, where 13-year-old William had recently enrolled, to tell him in advance that the program was running. “She told William that [it] would contain nothing controversial and that he would be proud of her,” Junor writes. William watched the program in the study of his Eton housemaster, angry, aghast and no doubt humiliated at the family secrets she laid bare before some 20 million viewers. Shortly afterwards the Queen told the warring couple to get on with a divorce. Sensing a deep need, the Queen encouraged William to make regular visits to Windsor Castle, just across the bridge from Eton, for tea and sympathy. The bond they already shared has only grown stronger in the years since.

Now, that doesn’t mean there were things that I struggled with. There were at least two things I must mention. The first is that Patterson’s writing style favors short chapters, and in this case, it came across at times as if each chapter were a newspaper story or article, and all of them added up together equaled a book. The transitions between chapters bounced around, causing the book to read in many ways like a timeline rather than a cohesive novel, with interconnected chapters that told a unified story. I saw that this bothered some readers, but I was able to deal with it. I should have realized when I started this book I would be vastly disappointed. I do not like James Patterson's writing. There, I said it. Some of you may want to tar and feather me, but if you are still reading, you must have a similar opinion of his writing as I.

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Diana, Princess of Wales, only lived until 36 years of age, and tragically died on August 31, 1997. She was mother to William and Harry, as anyone with knowledge of the British royal family is aware of. James Patterson and Chris Mooney have written a timely memoir of sorts in consideration of lives of Lady Diana and her sons William and Harry. As the boys came into the world, they were the chief focus of her life. As her marriage slowly fell apart, Lady Diana remained close to her sons. On the day of the funeral of Diana, princess of Wales—a sunny Saturday in September 1997—there was one small item that broke a million hearts in a city, and a nation, already awash in grief. A bouquet of white freesias sat atop her coffin as it rode on a gun carriage to Westminster Abbey. Nestled in the flowers was an envelope with a single word—“MUMMY”—printed in a child’s hand. Walking behind were its authors, princes William, 15, and Harry, 12, accompanied by their father, Prince Charles, their grandfather, Prince Philip, and their embittered uncle, Charles Spencer, Diana’s brother. At the time, those of us covering the funeral, and millions more watching on London’s streets and on televisions around the world, wondered what these wounded young lads could possibly have said to make sense of the tragedy that befell their mother, and the circus of grief it spawned. Because of that, I am going to qualify my review with the following comments. I am not an expert on history. Then again, let’s be honest. Neither do I expect everything to be one-hundred-percent accurate in a James Patterson book, regardless of whether it is a fiction or non-fiction. I cannot suspend my disbelief and trust any author that much, whether it be Patterson or anybody else in the general bestselling marketplace. And I am okay with that. Other readers may consider the need for strong accuracy to be a showstopper, and I completely respect that. To each their own. However, for me, I am going to be a bit lenient in this area of concern. Kensington Palace said: “The figure of Diana, Princess of Wales is surrounded by three children who represent the universality and generational impact of The Princess’ work.