This book charts the sometimes touching and often fraught association between two powerful women, from the moment Diana stepped over the Queen's threshold at Balmoral as a weekend guest in the 1980s to her death in 1997, and shows how the monarchy was affected by the tragedy. The author tells how the Queen tried to welcome Diana into the royal fold and how - too scared, young and psychologically troubled - Diana failed to grasp the hand of friendship. Revealing, the book describes how the Queen mostly stood alone in her defence of Diana, although in the end she came to fear her - and her effect on the Queen's grandchildren, William and Harry, and on the institution of monarchy. Through a meeting with the Princess a few weeks before her death, the author also provides an insight into the Camilla Parker Bowles set-up and the views and opinions of one of the most adored and vilified women of the 20th century.