Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps the best of the Diana books
Review: Of the various Diana tell-all books that have come out, this may be the best, with the added advantage that the passage of time gives some historical perspective. Inspector Ken Wharfe was a police officer assigned as 'personal protection officer' to Princess Diana's sons, and later to Diana herself, from 1986 to 1997. He left that post following a nasty argument with Diana over, of all things, whether Diana could park in a no-parking zone when she wanted to buy some CDs.The book operates on two levels, both as a chronicle of crucial events in Diana's bumpy personal and professional life from a relatively objective angle, as well as insight into how the London police protect the royal family. For most of the book, Wharfe is highly positive about Diana, describing her uncanny knack for relating to the needy, and he is critical of Charles. The author argues that tales of her being psychotic are highly exaggerated. Despite his spirited defense of Diana's mental health, one gets the impression that this was an extremely unstable woman with whom no one could maintain a normal professional or personal relationship. It seems every anecdote involves avoiding her angry outbursts or assuaging her fragile ego. This perspective on Diana's life was spellbinding, but I was even more fascinated by the insight into how the London police protect the royals. 'Protection officers' are expected to get close on a personal level to their protectees in order to gain their trust - an approach fraught with problems. Wharfe describes engaging in horseplay with Diana's sons, becoming essentially a surrogate father to them and a sort of platonic-husband figure to Diana. Although Wharfe sneers at the US Secret Service, the London police could do worse than to emulate their more emotionally detached approach to personal protection.
Rating: 
Summary: Princess Diana's secrets closely guarded
Review: This biography of Princess Diana is well written, and a mostly sympathetic account of Diana by her Police personal protection officer Ken Wharfe, describing a little bit of Diana's public life and private life in the years from 1987 to 1993. And especially sympathetic in the sense that Police Officer Ken Wharfe seemingly had few moral objections to aiding Diana's love affair with James Hewitt. There are a few new annecdotes told about Diana that are somewhat scandalous, but nothing any worse than previously reported scandalous stories about Diana's private behaviour, as written by earlier writers. Ken Wharfe clearly states that he is attempting to give an honest and fair account of Diana, denying some earlier writers claims of Diana as being mentally ill, although admitting Diana suffered from mood swings, and he is successful to a limited extent, in portraying Diana as a fairly normal woman, sometimes suffering in difficult and unhappy circumstances, but he also portrays Diana as a positive and sometimes happy and joyful woman. I would compare this Ken Wharfe book favorably with Andrew Morton's books written about Diana. However, similar to those books, this book actually gives very little detail about Diana's love affair with James Hewitt beyond what was already known from James Hewitt himself, and even less detail about Diana's love affair with Oliver Hoare. This reviewer was disappointed in how little intimate detail is given about Diana as a person, in this book, details which Ken Wharfe was in a position to know, and it seems that he is mostly continuing to keep Diana's secrets closely guarded, and still secret.
Rating: 
Summary: RELUCTANT REVELATION
Review: This book fell short of affirming that Ken Wharfe was a real Diana insider. Its "secret" details are very scanty: contrary to the expectations its title aroused. Mr Wharfe refrained from revealing any "close secret" that is hitherto unknown.
If you cherish reading anything about Lady Di, you may enjoy this one. But, if you are interested in some new revelations, I doubt if this book will quench your appetite.
As is customary with our nature, Ken displayed a deep sympathy for the dead. He did his best in down-playing any of those embarrassing moments in Diana's life. Still, I would have liked to know the reason why the late Princess, who called attention to charity during her lifetime failed to include charitable donations in her will. Instead, she left her entire wealth for her sons, who are not only royal, but are already multi-millionaires.
My inference is that the "secrets" in this book are so closely guarded that no reader will be able to come across them.
Rating:
Summary: Worth buying
Review: This book is an excellent, balanced, well-written account of Diana's life and a heartwarming glimpse into Diana's personality. The author has no axe to grind nor is he trying to make a buck by using the most shocking stories he knows. Instead, he has produced a very readable, fun book on Diana. I would not say this is THE one book to buy on the Princess of Wales but if you like to read about Diana, this is probably one of the Top 10. There is plenty of interesting new information to make it worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: An eyewitness account by an optimist
Review: This book is the eyewitness account of a police officer that guarded Diana for several years. This book should be useful for sorting fact from journalistic fiction. Apart form an occasional soapbox sermon on sidelines, such as AIDS, the writing style is more of the school history textbook and sticks to Diana. The facts are presented without any judgmental observations. There are occasional logical fallacies, such as inferring that disapproval is caused only by terror. There are enough facts to deduce that Diana was the cause of over half of her problems, including her easily avoidable death from not wearing a seat belt. Charles seems to have the autocratic George III as his role model and believed that his private treatment of his wife should be no different from his public treatment of commoners. The last chapter contrasts the basic philosophy difference between Scotland Yard's avoiding dangerous situations and the Arab philosophy of letting dangerous situations occur and surviving them. A bodyguard is no match for a one-ton+ car driven by a drunk driver at high speeds.
Rating:
Summary: WOW! What a book!
Review: This is by far the very best book I have ever read about the Princess of Wales! It was fair and balanced, and I think Inspector Wharfe gave the world a real gift by writing it. The insight he gives us into the Princess's world is truly fascinating.I think even more of Diana having read this book, flaws and all. If you weren't already a fan of Charles, you will not appreciate the first hand account of how poorly he treated his young wife, even though Wharfe did try to highlight the Prince's good qualities in this book too. It's so refreshing to have a book written by someone who actually knew and cared for the Princess,
and not some remote figure who is playing nothing more than a guessing game about what Diana was really like. Her love of life and exuberant, rebounding spirit, highlighted by Wharfe make me sad once again that she is gone. If you ever read one book about Diana, please let this be the one!
Rating:
Summary: Until Paul Burrell write *his* book (and you know he will!)
Review: This is probably the closest outsiders will get to knowing what Diana's world was truly like. Yes, there is Andrew Morton's book, but "Secret" proved to be a more interesting read. Maybe it's due to the fact that it provides a look *into* Diana rather than what *happened* to Diana. It reveals her personality, positive and negative, and is one more angle in the kaleidoscopic view presented by the multitude of writings about one Diana Frances Spencer. At times I found Wharfe to be somewhat condescending to his readers; the prelude of the book describes the day of Diana's funeral, and he speaks of the mourners who wept for her (myself included) and how they "had not known her", the implication being that the millions who grieved essentially had no right to do so. He rhetorically questions whether "....the people must also share some of that blame [for Diana's death]? After all, they had bought the newspapers, pored over the magazines, read the books, sat glued to the television coverage." It struck me that he was, in a manner, berating the people who he most certainly must have known would be the readers of his book. That aside, this is a truly delightful book for the most part, as Wharfe shares his stories of Diana and the Princes William and Harry over the years that he was the Protection Officer for first the Princes and then Diana. I believe that it tells of a side of Diana we don't hear enough about; rather than concentrating on the misery of her marriage, her adultery, or her vindictive aspects, as others are wont to do, we can revel in the humanity of Diana. At times the reader can almost hear, as her brother Charles Spencer said in his eulogy,"...the laugh that bent you double..."; we get glimpses of the same's remark regarding "...[her] wonderfully mischievous sense of humor ...". Naturally there are tales that show the "darker", if you will, side of Diana; sometimes she was petulant, ornery, and manipulative. However, I daresay that the entire human race possesses these same aspects! The trappings of royalty did not insulate her from sadness and disappointment, nor did they remove her innate responses to such. Until we have walked the proverbial mile in her shoes, we surely have no right to judge her actions. This book nearly completes the puzzle that was Diana, Princess of Wales for those of us not in the position to personally know her. Certainly it is not all sunshine and roses, but it is what I feel to be a far more consumate picture of a Lady that became a Princess and ultimately, in her own words, the "queen of people's hearts".
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read!
Review: This latest book on Diana, written by her former policeman/bodyguard was thoroughly enjoyable. Mr. Wharfe has a very logical and un-gossipy way of relating his experiences with Diana during his years of protecting her, while still conveying his respect and admiration for her. I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Choose Your Enemies Well!
Review: To me, one of the most interesting aspects of this book is it appears to prove the maxim: "Choose your enemies well, because you will eventually become just like them."Diana hated Charles and Camilla with a passion, and yet ends up doing the same sort of thing they did; she not only ends up committing adultery, she ends up having an adulterous affair with a married man, after going out of her way to befriend his wife.Ken Wharfe appears to be sympathetic about her adulterous affairs with single men; but the above mentioned one with the married man seems to mark the beginning of the end of the working relationship between Wharfe and Diana. He also does not condone any illegal activity on her part, especially when she tries to blame others for what she is guilty of--such as making hundreds of phone calls to her married lover's home.What he does in the book is pretty much hold her responsible for her own behavior. That is refreshing to see in a "pro-Diana" book, since some of those--as well as many Diana "fans"--so often seem to not hold her responsible for her actions. She is portrayed as some sort of perpetual hurt child, always being victimized by someone or something--Charles, Camilla, her parent's divorce, her in-laws, the press, etc. Why is it they do not see her as an adult, responsible for her words and actions? Is it because she did not want to see herself that way, but wanted to play the hurt child forever? One gets the feeling Ken Wharfe reached the point where he wasn't going to entertain and put up with Diana-The-Child any longer. He jumped ship. And yet, one cannot help but sense in some ways he feels bad about that, because she was in the hands of less intelligent bodyguards when she died.The author seems to have truly liked and cared about Diana. I like the author. I like his book. I think he himself proves it is better not to hate.
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