Andrew Morton's Biography of Princess Diana, As Seen in The Crown, Is Worth a Read
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Andrew Morton first published his biography of Princess Diana, Diana: Her True Story, in 1992. Using her friend, Dr. James Colthurst, as a go-between, Morton asked the Princess questions and she taped her answers—as long as he promised not to reveal her involvement. Her decision to collaborate with Morton is a focus of the second episode of season five of The Crown.
After the publication of the book, Morton told the New York Times that what he found most surprising was the lack of support the royal family gave Princess Diana. "Checkout girls in the supermarket get more training for their jobs than Diana did," he said. "And that antipathy has been allowed to go on for 10 years. Eventually you would have thought they would come around to examine the problem. But nothing gets tackled until it becomes a crisis, which is a fundamental weakness in the organization."
At the time, Morton shared with the press that the three main sources he used were Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, her close friend and Prince Harry's godmother, Carolyn Bartholomew, and James Gilbey, who was another close friend (and rumored lover) of Diana's. Yet, when she tragically died five years later, Morton re-issued the book as Diana: Her True Story—in Her Own Words, acknowledging his collaboration with the Princess of Wales to tell her story.
"This biography is unique in that the story contained in its pages would never have appeared had it not been for the wholehearted co-operation of Diana, the late Princess of Wales," Morton writes in the acknowledgements of the most recent edition. "The story is based on lengthy, tape-recorded interviews with Diana, supplemented by the testimony of her family and friends. Like Diana, they spoke with honesty and frankness in spite of the fact it meant laying aside the ingrained habits of discretion and loyalty which proximity to royalty invariably engenders. My thanks for their co-operation are therefore all the more heartfelt and sincere."
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