Dianaworld: the 'cultural phenomenon' behind the People's Princess

"I didn't think it was possible to produce an interesting book about Princess Diana at this juncture," said Nicola Shulman in Literary Review. "But, by George", Edward White has done it.

In "Dianaworld", he sets out to analyse how the third daughter of a "primogeniture-practising" family, born in the middle of last century, defied the limited expectations set for her and became "the most famous woman in the world". His book is not a conventional biography, and it offers "few new facts for Diana watchers". But what it does with "admirable intelligence" is to consider Diana as a cultural phenomenon – a figure who embodied many of the tendencies of her time, and became a repository for the fantasies of millions. White emphasises her "contradictions and paradoxical behaviours": Diana was an aristocrat who "believed herself to be an ordinary person"; a "curious elision of modern empathy and the ancient magical powers of royalty". Full of "arresting phrases" – Diana was a "wounded healer", who in her infamous BBC interview dressed as a "soap opera widow" – this is a "very fine" book.

White emphasises the way people saw in Diana exactly what they wanted to see, said Frances Wilson in the TLS. For British Asians, she was "the rebel who broke out of an arranged marriage". Drag queens admired her for her transgressiveness. Julie Burchill even argued that many of her traits – "profoundly maternal... strong-nosed, comely" – indicated Jewish blood. Meanwhile, Tony Blair – the ultimate "Dianaman", says White – seized on the grief over her death to play up their similarities. Diana, he said, "throbbed with non-conformity", a quality he identified with.

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White employs a "cod-academic register" at times, speaking of Diana's "iconicity" and her occupation of a "liminal cultural space", said Matthew Dennison in The Telegraph. But he also offers plenty of "quirky details", such as the Diana robot doll that became popular with Japanese children in the mid-1980s.

White is right that Diana's death has "retained an extraordinary cultural hold", said Hadley Freeman in The Sunday Times, but I'm not sure her influence has persisted. Charles, so hated after their separation, is now adored; while Harry, the "true inheritor of his mother's tendency to act first, think later", is widely detested. This book is an "amusing trip to what already feels like a distant past", but it left me with a bleak thought: "how odd so many of us once cared so much about that woman, and how soon we moved on".