‘I no longer want to live someone else’s idea of who and what I should be. I’m going to be me.’

‘I just absolutely thought I was the luckiest girl in the world.’

Diana Spencer's engagement to Prince Charles, announced in 1981, first cast the spotlight on the young girl who was to become one of the most intriguing and influential royals in modern history — despite deep and exasperated resistance in traditional royal circles, not least from some of her in-laws.

Until her tragic death in 1997 at the age of 36, Diana frequently gave interviews and shared her thoughts with many people. In this fresh portrait of Diana on her own life, Nigel Cawthorne gathers her most salient words from the very first till the very last - some known, some forgotten. They show a remarkable woman whose struggles, passion and compassion, continue to inspire two decades later.