Construction Maison

Cover of Remembering Diana published by National Geographic. (Photo: Mario Testino) Princess Diana is a larger-than-life figure in so many ways, and her biography contains moments large and small, public and private, royal and routine. This timeline follows Diana from childhood to storybook royal wedding to parenthood and then, unfortunately, to a death that came far too soon. 1961:   Diana Frances Spencer , born July 1, was the fourth of five children born to John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer and his first wife, Frances Ruth Roche. 1967:  The Spencers separate when Diana is six years old. The divorce would not be final until 1969, following a child custody battle won by her father. In later years, her younger brother, Charles, blames the split on the loss of their first son, John, who died within hours of his birth in 1960, and the difficulty of producing a male heir. 1969:  Diana's mother marries Peter Shand Kydd , an Australian wallpaper heir , and is accused by Shand Kydd...

They were the seven days that shocked the world, from the death of Princess Diana in Paris to her funeral at Westminster Abbey.  In this, the fifth part of our poignant series to mark the 20th anniversary, JONATHAN MAYO reconstructs those momentous events as they happened though the eyes of Royal Family members , politicians, the Princess’s family, and a grief-stricken public... 9am, Friday, September 5 At Althorp, the Spencer family seat , a temporary pontoon bridge to an island in the middle of a lake is being built by the Army. It is on this island that tomorrow Diana, Princess of Wales will be buried. In Great Yarmouth, sticks of rock with the message ‘Diana RIP’ are being taken off the shelves after complaints that they are disrespectful. Dickie Arbiter, the Queen’s Press secretary, is once more standing in front of Diana’s coffin in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace. When he was here on Wednesday, he felt angry with the Princess for not wearing a seatbelt. Today he has onl...

Hillary Clinton slept here. The year was 2000. Clinton was in the middle of her first political campaign, running to be New York’s junior senator. Steven Spielberg, an enthusiastic donor to Mrs Clinton who had the use of a pied-à-terre in Trump Tower purchased for him by Universal Pictures, barely stayed at the place, despite its views of Central Park, and offered it to the candidate as a crash pad on gruelling campaign days . Trump Tower in New York. Photo: Bloomberg Donald Trump and Clinton were on good terms back then. He donated money to her candidacy and called her “tough and smart”. Moreover, Trump was skilled in the art of spinning his associations with celebrities into publicity. This was particularly true at Trump Tower. Michael Jackson lived in Donald J. Trump’s gleaming Midtown edifice . So have gamblers, a disgraced dictator, a Ponzi schemer and a stock huckster. Credit Photo Illustration by Peter Horvath; photographs by Chad Batka for The New York Times (Trump); Hiroko...