Portraits of a Princess: Travels with Diana

Rating:
Summary: A lovely way to remember her.
Review: Diana, the Princess of Wales, is in the news again, with "new" videotaped interviews being shown on television seven years after her death in a car crash in a Paris tunnel. Although he isn't the one releasing the videotapes, Patrick Jephson, who served for six years as her first and only private secretary, has just released a new book, "Portraits of a Princess: Travels with Diana," in which he reveals fascinating behind-the-scenes details of what it was like to work for and travel with the princess. He combines his text with photos by award-winning royal photographer Kent Gavin.

The book includes 300 black and white or color photos of Diana, 150 of which were previously unpublished. There really are lots of photos here. The text is a sometimes emotional memoir written by someone who obviously admired her. The photos cover the range of her life in the public eye, from her first awkward experiments with fashion to her later, confident style, as she evolved "from Prince Charles's diffident consort into an independent, global force for good." The author shows Diana as "ambassador" to people all over the world, from monarchs and world leaders to the lowliest on the street and in hospitals. He describes her as "an unbeatable combination of fashion and compassion."
But Jephson had writing help: Kent Gavin wrote the foreword, titled "The View from Inside the Press Pen." There's a chapter called "Travels of a Royal Press Secretary" written by Dickie Arbiter. And there's another chapter on "Diana's Style" written by Ollie Picton-Jones, the fashion director for the Daily Mirror.

Jephson ends the book with an epilogue titled "Did She Make a Difference?" Obviously, he thinks she did. This is a lovely gift for those royal-watchers among us who still can't quite believe she's gone.

Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed with this book.
Review: Mr. Jephson's first book "Shadows of a Princess" was alternately praising of the Princess and then would tear her down so I was a bit wary of this book.
I think it takes a nicer tone about the Princess this time, describing trips she made to various countries (each with it's own chapter) with Jephson in tow. For your money I find that you'll be getting what amounts to a medium sized picture book with large print text. Kent Gavin's long introduction is actually the best, most informative part of the text, Jephson puts too much of himself in his writing. The pictures, well you've seen most of them before, they're still good anyway.
There are a couple of chapters at the end by other writers about traveling with Diana, also better than what Jephson himself wrote.
It isn't the worst book to own but I'd still prefer Rosalind Coward's book.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The book contains several inaccurate informations on dates and places - which is surprinsing for an author who was previously the princess's private secretary. The so called never-seen-before photos are almost none, especially if you are a serious Diana fan.