A lot has happened since Diana was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997. The twin towers fell, the euro was born, the Good Friday agreement was signed and media interest in her death meant the princess was seldom off the front pages for long.
But what if the princess had not died? Step forward Monica Ali, whose new book aims to fill the gap.
Seven years ago Ali enraged Bangladeshi elders in the East End of London with her debut novel, Brick Lane. Her new novel, Untold Story, depicts the ups and downs of a fictional princess whose life trajectory bears more than a passing resemblance to that of Diana. The 43-year-old author confirmed that the work had been strongly influenced by the late Princess of Wales, and includes "a drama involving a member of the paparazzi".
She told the Guardian she had always been intrigued by Diana. "Over the years I've sometimes found myself wondering, if the accident had never happened, how would she have emerged from that period in which she seemed to be at some kind of crossroads? How would she have matured into her 40s and beyond?
"What I always admired about her was the way she refused to be told what to do. She stuck two fingers up at the establishment, she took risks, she was a gorgeous bundle of trouble."
Ali delivered the first draft to her publishers, Transworld, last July. It is now in the final stages of editing, with publication planned for the end of March – just a month before the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
The timing was a coincidence, Ali said today. "At first, I thought it was unfortunate timing – I'd delivered the first draft last summer, before the engagement had been announced. But then I thought about all the negative things that have been written about Diana in the press and in non-fiction books over the years. That's all the stuff that might be hard for her sons," she told the Daily Mail.
Clarence House declined to comment on the book.
Ali stressed that the book was not simply a sequel to Diana's life. "I did my research but it's a work of fiction. It's primarily about identity, which is what I always write about.
"And it's about family and friendship, and the peculiar calamity of fame," she said.
It is not the first time that Diana's life has been fictionalised. She appeared as a character in Andrew O'Hagan's novel Personality, and was a looming presence in The Little White Car, a comic novel written by the Granta novelist Dan Rhodes under the pen name Danuta de Rhodes, in which Veronique, a young Parisian, prangs her parents' car in the accident that killed Diana.
Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk
0 comments:
Post a Comment