Jenny Diski writes:

Diana understood the more compellingly modern psychological drama of the ineluctably unhappy ending for those who acted out, and did not or could not abide by the rules. She became an avatar of modernity, stepping boldly into her role as victim (‘There were three of us in this marriage’ and overdoing the kohl under her eyes), while fully complying with the requirements of the great amorphous conspiracy that keeps society on a roughly even keel (being easily dismissible as a hysteric and failing to wear a seat belt). With a better education, she might have liked Hardy and read Foucault with interest. ‘She won’t go quietly, that’s the problem,’ Diana said to 15 million people in the Panorama interview, slipping naturally into the third person. It was more like a trailer than a warning.

(LRB 2 August 2007)

Penguin | paperback 443 pp. |ISBN: 9780140276718