The Manchester Evening News declared, it took ""a biographer like Ingrid Seward to unleash a sober, challenging glimpse into the one relationship of such scrutiny."" That relationship is the complex, troubled, and often turbulent association between Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth. According to conventional wisdom, the Queen and Di were at odds almost from the start, but as the author of this ""explosive book"" (London Daily Mail) reveals, the Queen was for a long time one of Diana's staunchest defenders, from the moment the future princess set foot on the royal turf of Balmoral Castle as a weekend guest in the 1980s. In this work, bestselling author Ingrid Seward, the longtime editor of Majesty magazine and perhaps the most authoritative writer on the royal family, takes the reader behind the palace gates of Buckingham, Balmoral, and Sandrigham, and shows us how the royals really live and operate among themselves. Elizabeth herself as a young bride had to learn how to deal with all sorts of personal problems, including a sometimes difficult and wayward husband, so she was especially sympathetic to Diana's many idiosyncrasies and difficulties. From an insider's perspective, the author charts Di's ups and downs: her difficult childhood, bulimia, depression, and sometimes even paranoia, offset by her innate charm, compassion, and common touch. Diana just wanted to be loved . but love isn't part of the royal vocabulary.

A few weeks before her death, Princess Diana called and invited Ingrid Seward to come to her house. Drawing on her long association with Diana and what turned out to be Diana's last conversation with a member of the press, Seward provides astonishing insight into the Camilla Parker Bowles affair, as well as the views and opinions of one of the most adored and vilified women of the twentieth century.