Death of a Princess [antikvár]

FOREWORD On the place de I'Alma in Paris, there is a statue of a golden flame. It is a replica of the torch held by the Statue of Liberty. But it has taken on a different, and powerful, meaning for Parisians since Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed* died in a car crash in the Alma tunnel in the early morning hours of 31 August 1997. The flame is now the focal point of a Diana cult, its base piled high with cellophane-wrapped flowers, and plastered with scrawled messages like, "Farewell, England's Rose," and "Diana, you gave meaning to my life." When a princess dies, and an enthralling one at that, the circumstances of her life and death take on a mythical quality in the popular mind. So it has been with Diana, Princess of Wales. Already she has become the stuff" of legend. Some conspiracy theorists say she was the victim of a plot by Britain's MI6 secret service, destined to prevent the embarrassment of her marriage to an Arab Muslim. Others believe Diana was hounded to her death by a rapacious band of paparazzi, ironically falling victim to the very personahty cult she had tried so hard to * While his father Mohammed styles his name with the "Al" honorific, Dodi did not.