DIANA: THE SECRET YEARS
by Simone Simmons with Susan Hill
The Ballantine Publishing
© Random House Online, Inc. 1998
Group is a division of
Random House, Inc.
|
Hardcover
November 1998
0-345-43365-3
$25.00
"A FASCINATING INSIGHT INTO DIANA'S LAST YEARS FROM A TRUE INSIDER."
--Andrew Morton, author of Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words
"Better than most, I knew that she was hurting about her lost love, so I
hadn't been very surprised when she took up with someone else that summer.
She had earned a break, and the relationship with Dodi Fayed...might
have been the perfect summer fling. But if it had, indeed, been designed
to inspire another's jealousy, I doubt that the tactic worked. If
anything, he would have been horrified by the reminder of the depth of
public interest in anything she said or did, or anywhere she went, and with
whom..."
--from Diana: The Secret Years
Though many have written about Diana, Princess of Wales, few have known Diana as intimately as Simone Simmons, the woman who became Diana's close personal friend and confidante following her painful and much-publicized separation and divorce. In 1993, Diana sought seclusion, recovery, and refuge. After meeting Simone at the Hale Clinic where she worked as a healer, Diana invited her to Kensington Palace. Their relationship soon blossomed into a precious friendship, as Diana trusted Simone with her most private thoughts, sharing every detail of her life and loves, her hopes and dreams.
This lovingly written book offers a rare glimpse inside the life of the real Diana, revealing casual, contemplative moments, daily routines, and simple pleasures at home; the secret forays she took, often hiding in plain sight in various disguises, to Hampstead Heath and the jazz clubs of Soho; illuminating insight into her sometimes mercurial changes in temperament, stormy friendships, and complex relationship with the press; her deepest feelings about Prince Charles, Camilla Parker-Bowles, the royal family, and her two cherished sons, Princes William and Harry; the shocking truth about Diana's one true love and how losing him led her into the arms of playboy millionaire Dodi Fayed; and the astonishing stages of Diana's healing and personal growth, as she transformed herself from emotionally defeated victim to confident and self-reliant role model for millions of women around the world.
A beautiful tribute to the remarkable woman behind the image, here is Diana as we have never seen her before--frank and off-guard, in leggings and plain T-shirts, honest and open and completely at ease. Full of penetrating insight, startling new revelations, and sixteen pages of candid color photographs, Diana: The Secret Years brings the People's Princess vividly to life for the people who love her--and who continue to celebrate her enduring memory and lasting legacy.
Simone Simmons was born in 1955 and has always lived in London where she still resides with her three cats. She works from home as an energy healer. She has also worked voluntarily for a cancer unit and shared Diana's interest in the land-mine cause, visiting Bosnia with a friend from the Red Cross.