The Transfiguration of Diana

IN THE early Eighties, back in my disc-jockey days, the program director called us all in and announced revisions to the Death of the Monarch procedure-a grand name for what was more or less just a dusty tape of solemn music sitting within easy reach in every radio and TV studio in the Commonwealth. It was felt that we needed to distinguish between core Royals-the Queen, the Queen Mother-who merited the full back-to-back-requiems treatment, and peripheral minor duchesses, for whom something melodious but respectful like “Greensleeves” or Pachelbel’s Canon would suffice. Painstakingly, we worked our way down the list, until someone asked, “And what about the Princess of Wales?”

“Oh,” said a voice from the back of the room, “just bung on the new Wham! album.”

About the Author

Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn is an international bestselling author, a Top 41 recording artist, and a leading Canadian human-rights activist.

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IN THE early Eighties, back in my disc-jockey days, the program director called us all in and announced revisions to the Death of the Monarch procedure-a grand name for what was more or less just a dusty tape of solemn music sitting within easy reach in every radio and TV studio in the Commonwealth. It was felt that we needed to distinguish between core Royals-the Queen, the Queen Mother-who merited the full back-to-back-requiems treatment, and peripheral minor duchesses, for whom something melodious but respectful like “Greensleeves” or Pachelbel’s Canon would suffice. Painstakingly, we worked our way down the list, until someone asked, “And what about the Princess of Wales?”

“Oh,” said a voice from the back of the room, “just bung on the new Wham! album.”