Queen of irony (Althorp)

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Product:	Althorp
Date:	09/01/01 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Charity and Money making

Disadvantages: Sad story

I worked at Althorpe house in 1998 to earn a few quid over the summer towards the bills. It was a about a year after the death of Diana and part of the reason I took the steward position was to see if the mass hysteria that gripped the female and gay population had died away from that fateful bizarre day the previous year.
The house itself has been neglected by her brother who now runs it since the late 80s when it was heavily in debt like most country estates who hadn't been bailed out by The National Trust. The improvements are very commercial but in keeping with the splendor of the land and you cant say he went over the top to "cash in" on the families and a certain section of the publics loss.
For twelve pounds booked in advance you got to see the converted stables that contain a museum of some of her infamous dress and memories. The film of her skipping around with royals when she was small is quite intriguing as it shows even at a young age she was being groomed to be a possible future princess ,very much erasing any romantic thoughts of the peoples Princess.
There is an extreme serenity about the place when the sun shines and you can hear the weeps of middle aged mums strangely effected by the passing of a woman who had nothing in common with pretty much anyone who paid the money to visit.It was a kind of hero worship like a young guy at the football or girl at a Take That concert.The patron saint of women as my supervisor put it.
Its amazing how there's a certain need by some people to believe what the TV and Radio tell us to act and be and how the minority of the land that day was caught up in the haze of the death of a conceited bored women who did little for the people except some charity work that all Princesses do.
The lake is the center point of the Diana exploitation errrrr experience where bored kids glued to thoughtful mums and designated male drivers stare at a small plaque at the middle of the lake which is supposed to contain
the casket with Diana's body in it but the whisper around these parts is that the body is in the family crypt and the local vicar who did the burial has turned to the bottle and Prozac with the secret he lives with.
Even though im not a great fan of The Spencer's and especially the brother who dare to denounce the press for killing his sister when he was a journalist at the time in South Africa who went around famous peoples house and did Hello style interviews to make money,hypocrisy at its extreme.More so with Diana who courted at will the tabloids when she wasn't happy with her ego boosting coverage or the profile shots encouraging even more press intrusion.An ironic deaf if ever there was one.
The park is still open this summer(2001)even though it was supposed to be a one year only deal although the numbers are small and the legend is dying as the media drives these lost souls in another direction as it did that fateful day in August one warm Paris evening.

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