Thursday 17 September 2009

Express has exclusive on two women who have been dead for years

Diana is back on the front page of the Express, exactly two weeks after her last appearance there. No conspiracy theories this time, just the thoroughly outrageous 'news' that she has been 'axed from Royal history'.

Does that headline make sense? Well no, not really.

Is it true? Well no, not really.

What we have is a new official biography of the Queen Mum written by William Shawcross, which is covered in every paper today. It's 1,096 pages long and, spits the Express, only two pages are devoted to death of St Diana.

Given the Queen Mother lived to 101 that would equate to around ten pages for every year of her life. In that context, two pages on Diana's death doesn't seem that strange - especially when it has been written about so much that everyone is completely and utterly bored of it.

Everyone except the Express, that is.

And just because there are two pages on Diana's death, that does not mean she is not written about anywhere else in the book, which is what the headline states. Indeed, the article goes on to discuss other areas where St Diana is mentioned.

So how is that being 'axed'?

And why one person's biography should be about someone else is hard to fathom, but this is the Express and Diana so all common sense goes out the window.

Inevitably there is the outraged 'critic' on hand. The Express says the book was:


condemned as a whitewash yesterday

Who condemned it? A so-called 'Royal author' called Margaret Holder. It appears she was once involved with Royalty Magazine and, perhaps more tellingly, the editor of a book called Diana, the Caring Princess: In Her Own Words, which was rushed out a couple of months after Diana's death. So hardly an unbiased critic.

In fact, the Express uses the word 'critics' but fails to produce anyone other than Holder to be outraged.

Is this really front-page news or just another pitiful excuse to stick Diana on the front page?

And just because no Diana story would be complete without a nasty dig at Camilla, Express journalist Richard Palmer comes up with this:


In one letter she describes ­Wallis Simpson, the woman Edward VIII gave up his throne for, as “the lowest of the low” but there is no written record of her thoughts on her favourite grandson Charles’s on-off affair with Camilla.

See what he did there? Charming.

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