Burchill cashes in

Paul Wellings, Romford CLP, reviews Julie Burchill's Diana, published by Weidenfeld, £20.

The themes of this book are quite simple: death, lack of a free press, bulimia, sexual politics and aristocratic depravities! Julie Burchill explores all these angles and deduces that the monarchy and aristocracy have no place in a civilised society. Where she goes wrong is idolising Diana.

Opting for glossy song titles for chapter headings like the Power of Love and Uptown Girl, Burchill has clearly rushed this book as a cash-in. Although Burchill never met Diana, there is still a creepy idolatry that pervades the book. If she felt so strongly about the hypocrisy and callousness of the Royal Family and upper class towards Diana then why didn't she write something before her car crash? More importantly, if Diana was such a compassionate humanitarian why did she not give more of her millions away to the poor and needy?

Burchill crystallises her affection for Diana in the marvellous paragraph, "I am the cynic of the word. The cynic's cynic. A class warrior whose personal flame for the unknown soldier never fades. But in this aristocratic young woman, two years younger than me, I saw something I could not sneer at."

Julie Burchill, former Communist Party member and Guardian columnist, is incapable of writing a book without any merit - but this is not the book she could have written.

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