The Bodyguard's Story.

Trevor Rees-Jones. 2002. Read by Peter Wickham. 10 tapes. 12 hrs. Soundings, ISIS Publishing. 1-84283-194-1. $69.95. Vinyl; content, reader, author notes. SA

The death of Princess Diana in an automobile accident in Paris in 1997 received worldwide attention. Also killed in the accident were Dodi Fayed and the driver. Investigation focused on the paparazzi that swarmed about Diana, but it was soon learned that the driver was drunk. Bodyguard Rees-Jones suffered severe facial trauma and has no memory of the accident itself. Here he provides an exciting and absorbing account of his work protecting Dodi and Diana, and the efforts of his employer, Dodi's wealthy father Mohamed Al Fayed, owner of Harrod's, to gain control of the story. Fayed ultimately declared Rees-Jones responsible for the accident though the senior Fayed himself had arranged the evening's travel.

Wickham voices the characters brilliantly; he handles well the movement in the telling between third and first person. I expect that interest in this audiobook, as in Diana herself, will extend well beyond mere interest in celebrity. Vivian E. Berg, Mandan, ND