The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor (43 page)

But the fairytale had an unhappy ending. By the time they were touring Korea they had given up pretending. Official separation was only weeks away.

Diana reached out to people in a way that royalty never had before.

Anne’s approach, by comparison, looked cold and unfeeling.

Diana understood instinctively what put people at their ease – and the importance of being on the same level.

She wanted to be the Queen of People’s Hearts.

William at 18 – already showing signs of being his mother’s son.

The King is dead. Long live the Queen. Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. Individuals come and go but the institution is what matters and the institution carries on.

The Queen Mother’s funeral at Westminster Abbey. She lived to the age of 101 and enchanted the nation. Queues for the lying-in-state stretched for three miles.

Prince William learning to cook at Eton. The photo was one of a series shot for his 18th birthday, which caused ‘a storm in a Fleet Street teacup’ and lost the Prince’s Press Secretary her job.

It was a good experience for William, however, and helped him to relax with the media that he had grown up hating.

It’s a Royal Knockout
was a turning point. It was done with the best of intentions but it placed royalty on a par with showbusiness personalities.

That doesn’t mean all good works have to be serious. William and Harry replace ponies with bicycles to raise money for a charity polo match in Wiltshire.

A country woman at heart with a love of dogs and horses and not a trace of vanity.