Diana: My Autobiography

Anne Hutchings is a teacher-librarian in Ajax, Ontario.

Diana, named for the Princess of Wales, is royalty-(and anything
English)struck. After reading Andrew Morton’s Diana: Her True Story,
our Diana decides to write her autobiography. Despite her three
connections to royalty—(i) her name; (ii) the fact that her father,
along with all the other school children in Stephenville, saw the Queen
and Prince Philip when they visited Newfoundland in 1959; and (iii) the
fact that her grandfather’s best friend was the Queen Mother’s
gillie—life for Diana is pretty dull until Willard with the Prince
Charles ears arrives from England, and she falls hopelessly in love.
Diana, being the imaginative, romantic, “caring” individual that she
is, sets out to make herself indispensable to Willard and his family.
Told alternately as Diana’s autobiography and a first-person
narrative, the story is at times funny, touching, sad, or, as Diana
herself would put it, “bittersweet.”

Along with being a delightful story to be read for sheer enjoyment,
this book has many curriculum connections. Its usefulness in a language
arts unit on biography is obvious. As part of a study of Canada, it
could lead to discoveries about the many species of fish caught in
Newfoundland (in addition to the ones mentioned in the book), to
discussion about why many Newfoundland fishers have lost their jobs, or
to further research about different Newfoundland industries. Highly
recommended.