Diana book dismissed as 'grubby'

A BOOK claiming the Princess of Wales had a four-year affair with James Hewitt, a former acting Army major, provoked a storm of criticism and contempt yesterday.

Princess in Love, published by Bloomsbury and written by Anna Pasternak - the great niece of Boris Pasternak, who wrote Dr Zhivago - was dismissed by Buckingham Palace as 'grubby and worthless . . . We are not going to waste any more time on this tawdry little book,' a spokesman said.

Ms Pasternak alleges in the book, which was published amid great secrecy yesterday, that Mr Hewitt and the Princess of Wales made love in Kensington Palace and then continued their affair with regular weekends together at Highgrove House when Prince Charles was away.

Lord Mishcon, the Princess of Wales's solicitor, said that Princess in Love sounded like 'a wretched book' and asked whether the time had not come for the public and media to show contempt for those seeking to make money out of the Royal couple's unhappiness.

Dame Barbara Cartland, a romantic novelist and the Princess's step-grandmother, said she was 'sickened' that Mr Hewitt should have spoken about the affair.

Charles Meynell, a friend of Mr Hewitt, said the former Life Guards officer faced being 'frozen out' by his old Army comrades. His name would probably go up on the barrack gates making him persona non grata.

Bloomsbury Publishing defended the book as 'very important' and Ms Pasternak insisted she had just wanted the public to know the truth about how Mr Hewitt had stood loyally by the Princess during the most traumatic period of her life and marriage.

Professor Lisa Jardine, the Dean of Arts at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, described the book as 'an excellent parody of the Mills and Boon genre'.

Lord St John of Fawsley said it was 'clogging, nauseating and overblown . . . It makes Barbara Cartland sound like George Eliot. Once you put it down, you cannot pick it up again . . .'

(Photograph omitted)

Author's story, page 5

Mark Lawson, page 16