After Diana: Irreverent Elegies

by Mandy Merck (Editor)

Leading cultural critics dissect the enormous welter of words and images to determine what can be made of this extraordinary response to the princess's death. For those perplexed by the events surrounding Diana's death, this book seeks to provide some answers. 32 photos.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christopher Hitchens - Diana The Mourning After [1998]

[magicandscience · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what it would have been like to read this in the 90s when it was published, but it feels very dated now. I was a child at the time of Diana's death so this book was useful to situate it in a wider socio-political context. Some of the essays were good.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published a scant year after Di's demise, "After Diana" aims to provide a range of takes on the significance of Di's life, death and story, from a perspective that is (a) more reflective, with a rather pronounced 90s-academic flavour and (b) more critical, than the then prevailing norm (viz. nauseating gush).

However, 15 or so years on, it has to be said that it survives as a memento of its happily departed era than as an absorbing read in its own right.


A few of the pieces are still entertaining: Hitchens, Wheen, Newey. In a different way, the Baudrillard song and the magazine-style Bhabha BS.

One for the specialists.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the articles have dated quite badly in the intervening 20 years since they were written, but for the most part the standard of writing is very good. There are some good issues explored here: the role of the monarchy in modern Britain, the mood in the early years of Blair's New Labour, and society's need to embrace celebrity.