Diana (38 page)

Gesturing to the stuffed bank of wardrobes she’d worn on tours: “Now you can see my problem for yourself.”

“The inspiration for this wonderful sale comes from just one person … our son William.”

When a director of Christie’s implied that one of the gowns looked “a little tired,” Diana replied, “Hardly surprising. I wore it at so many banquets, it must be exhausted.”

Columnist Cindy Adams asked Diana how the gowns could be in such perfect condition. Didn’t she ever spill on herself? “Of course I did,” Diana replied. “I’ve spilled gravy, and I’ve spilled shrimps down my front. I’m just like everybody else. But the Palace has wonderful cleaners.”

“I’ve kept a few things. But you know that Catherine Walker [gown] with all the bugle beads? People in England don’t wear those kinds of clothes anymore.”

As of June 1987 Diana’s list of preferred activities included dancing, tennis, needlepoint, television (“especially soap operas—
Crossroads, EastEnders, Dallas, Dynasty),
movies (“James Bond, Ken Russell, old black-and-white weepies”), books (romantic novels like those by Danielle Steel are particular favorites), and theater (“I go as often as I can to the theater”).

“I dance once a week if I can. It’s a combination of tap, jazz, and ballet. I think it’s vital to switch for one or two hours every week. It’s my absolute passion. I’m a great believer in having music wherever I go. It’s just a big treat to go out for a walk with music still coming out with me. I tend to listen to an enormous amount of classical music. All my family, my side of the family, are very
music-oriented, and that’s where I picked it up. I love it.”

“I get so few chances to go dancing and there’s nothing I love more.”

Her favorite group: Dire Straits. Her favorite singer: Kiri Te Kanawa. As for food: “I prefer fish to meat. I’m an avid cook.”

Some of her favorite “upper-class” expressions included “all this fuss,” “quite daunting,” “absolutely maddening,” “very cross,” and the famous “pretty amazing.”

Her dislikes: “People who talk about horses all the time,” smoking (“I have a no smoking sign in my sitting room”), children with sticky hands, noises in the night, Balmoral (“too big, too cold, and too formal”), royal tours (“I find them exhausting,
they make me nervous, and I am often unable to eat”), big dogs in the house.

When a young man with AIDS told her she was “more gorgeous than in the papers,” she quickly replied, “You should see me in the mornings.”

When handing out the Arts Council’s Year of Dance Awards in London: “Dance is one of my greatest loves. It is one of the best ways I know of expressing the joy of living. Dance is a universal language with a unique ability to express human ideas and emotions to bring people together.”