Not Enjoying Herself 
Jenny Diski
And now for the other princess: the one who failed to stop all the clocks in Kensington Palace and Mustique, and grew old.[1] In doing so she became sick, fat, grumpy, drunk and unloved. This, you might think, is the fate of many people who leave dying to their later years. But in a princess these flaws, if not the necessary concomitants of age then surely an entitlement of age, are particularly disappointing. We like our princesses young and adorable, and if possible witty and talented, though we’ve had to settle for the former. While she was young, Margaret Rose was the apple of her father’s eye, enchanting to all who met her, talented, witty, artistic, they said – and then one day she was middle-aged, frumpy, snobbish, self-centred, a raddled old gin tippler and a bore. So much apparent promise, so little follow through.
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Jenny Diski is writing a book about St Helena. A novel, Apology for the Woman Writing, is coming out in November.
Other articles by this contributor:
Seriously Uncool · Susan Sontag
XXX · Doing what we’re told
Flowery, rustic, tippy, smokey · Jenny Diski drinks a cup of tea
The Housekeeper of a World-Shattering Theory · Mrs Freud
Jowls are available · ‘Second Life’
Giving Hysteria a Bad Name · At home with the Mellys
Tremble for Tomorrow · In the Vilna Ghetto
Diary · The Friendly Spider Programme
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