After Diana: We thought her death had changed us...

On 31 August 1997, the nation suddenly seemed a different place. Today the woman in the street is not so sure

Manda Clunes, 39, novelist

When I was watching the coverage of the Omagh tragedy, some politicians said these people's lives would not be forgotten, but sadly, however devastated we are at the time, we move on. Diana will not be forgotten, the way Kennedy will not be forgotten, but this wanting to change and sticking to it is like making New Year's resolutions. We always break them. I would like to think there'd be a legacy, and in some aspects there is. I suppose there is no need to be cynical about it. But is it possible to maintain that depth of feeling? The whole thing about grief is that you are supposed to get over it.

I think we've changed, but it was not quite an overnight thing. The seeds had been sown much earlier. Diana died not long after Labour came into power so I think we were already thinking we had reached a new era that she was part of. She was a reaction to all that awful Thatcherism of the Eighties, she was never in tune with that.

The powers that be are trying to make the Queen change. The Queen recently visited McDonald's, but it's just insulting to think that any of us would fall for that. I think she was responding to the public approval that Diana got by taking the boys to the cinema and Thorpe Park.

Somehow we now think there is more virtue in being a common person than in being the Queen. Virtue isn't about your lifestyle, it's about how you treat people. Diana has changed us because now we have this tiresome culture of the common man, which is just as tiresome as the culture of the yuppie and just as real. Whatever her shortcomings were, the important thing about her was her struggle to have humanity. It had nothing to do with class, gender or orientation.

I still find the Royal Family unappealing. When they supposedly came down to be with the people outside Buckingham Palace before the funeral they stood there po-faced and inexpressive, but when a few months later their boat was being decommissioned they were in floods of tears. Whatever they thought of her, a young woman who dies leaving two children must be more important than a boat.

Anna Simons, 36, housewife,

Richmond, Surrey

I think one of the reasons people were upset about Diana's death is that they can't read about what she's up to any more. She spiced life up a bit. I don't think it has changed society, but the paparazzi can't go nipping around as they used to, and that's rather nice. The only thing that changed temporarily was hypocrisy. I think people were genuinely sad. But dreadful tragedies go on all the time.

I don't think the nation has changed. There was all this talk of us becoming more caring, but I don't know what we were supposed to do. Friends of mine who donate to cancer or heart research funds have kept on giving, but I don't know of anyone who has started giving to charities just because Diana has died.

The Royal Family has changed because it has had to be more sympathetic to the public's views. I don't know if that is healthy. If you turn the royals into one of the people their specialness waters down and they won't last. They've all lived very odd lives. I don't think I need them to turn human, but Diana was just different.

Sharanne Basham-Pyke, 36, IT

consultant, Newport, South Wales

The Royal Family is an old tradition but it's worthwhile because it brings tourists. The death of Diana really affected me because I am about the same age, and have two children. I think all people could find something in her that they could relate to themselves, whether it was divorce, eating disorders, or just the shock of a young person dying. The death of a young person seems wrong and I think that was what people were grieving about.

A year on, I'm dubious about the press respecting privacy, and our unity in grief was short-lived. But Diana's death was a real milestone in British history. It marked a particular time. So many people can remember what they were doing when she died, but people soon moved back to their position before; they still feel the level of sadness but don't show it now as they did when it happened. As a nation I don't think we have changed at all.

Interviews by Cayte Williams