The unexpected death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in Paris on August 31st 1997
led to a period of mourning over the next week that took the world by surprise.
Major institutions - the media, the royal family, the church, the police - for
once had no pre-planned script. For the public, this was a story with an ending
they had not anticipated. How did these institutions and the public create a
cultural order in the face of such disorder? Both those involved in the mourning
and those who objected to it struggled to understand the depth and breadth of
emotion shaking Britain and the world.