Shelf life

If Diana had lived ...

British author of Bangladeshi origin Monica Ali has written a new novel that reportedly imagines the life of Princess Diana if she had not died in a car accident in 1997.

The book, titled Untold Story, a fictional tale inspired by Diana's life, will be published in March, just a month before the wedding of Diana's son Prince William and Kate Middleton, The Daily Express reported recently.

Ali, 43, said the novel, about a princess adored by the public but betrayed and trapped in private, would not hurt princes William or Harry, even though its theme is what would have happened if Diana had not died in the car accident. The novelist, who described the book as her homage to Diana, said she often thought about the princess' vow that she would not go quietly. Diana and her companion Dodi Fayed died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.

"Over the years, I've sometimes found myself wondering how she would have matured into her forties and beyond," Ali said.

"The question I am asking in the novel is, had she lived, would she have eventually found peace and happiness in her personal life or would the curse of fame have always been too great," Ali said. The book reportedly features a paparazzo photographer as one of the central characters and portrays the princess sympathetically.

"Although my novel is certainly inspired by Diana's situation, of course my princess is fictional and I hope she's a sympathetic figure as well. I don't think it will cause hurt," she said. — IANS

Pakistan's ruling PPP should try to unmask the killers of Benazir Bhutto while the party is in power or else the masterminds of her gruesome assassination are unlikely to be brought to justice, feels journalist-writer Amir Mir, who has come up with a new book about the murder of the charismatic former prime minister.

"In my personal opinion, the Pakistan government should immediately proceed against all the murder suspects, no matter how powerful they are," says Mir, who has authored The Bhutto Murder Trail: From Waziristan to GHQ, published by Tranquebar.

Drawing on personal anecdotes, meetings, off-the-record conversations with Benazir, and the emails that he exchanged with her just before her death, Mir brings out a carefully documented reconstruction of the assassination that rocked the world, the events leading to it, and its aftermath.

"President (Asif Ali) Zardari needs to understand one thing: It was the personal sacrifice of Benazir that ostensibly brought the PPP into power. Therefore, the masterminds of her assassination should be taken to task before the next general election," says Mir.

"If her killers cannot be unmasked now, while Bhutto’s PPP is in power in Islamabad, it is less likely that they will ever be unmasked, and there is a possibility that like all infamous murder cases, the mastermind of Bhutto's murder will also remain a shadowy figure," Mir, who has authored three books on the subject of militant Islam and terrorism, said in an interview. — PTI

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