The entire world suffered a great loss when Diana, Princess of Wales, died on the 31st of August, 1997. In the weeks following her death the enormous outpouring of grief made it clear that Diana was, indeed, the best-loved person in the world. This photographic tribute to Diana is an attempt not only to tell the story of her life visually but to do so using photographs of the very highest quality.

The editor of this volume, Michael O'Mara, has also tried to use Diana's own favourite pictures such as those taken by her father, the late Earl Spencer, in her youth, and those by Patrick Demarchelier in the 1990s.

Diana was so beautiful and so special that there must be thousands of photographs which might have been included in this volume. The editor hopes, however, that the approximately two hundred selected for this tribute serve best to represent the brightest star which has shone in our time.