It Is Time for Princess Diana to Take Her Place in History; Kensington Palace Curator Lucy Worsley Tells Katie Law about Tragic Princesses, Feuding Academics and Why She Thinks Having Children Would Hamper Her Career

Byline: Katie Law

HISTORIAN Dr Lucy Worsley has been following every twist and turn of the current scandal surrounding her fellow academic, Orlando Figes, with what she calls "a prurient fascination". She describes the dramatic unfolding of the saga, which began with the London history professor posting anonymous, vicious reviews of his rival's book on Amazon, and then denying it, as "hubris so satisfyingly followed by nemesis".

But then Worsley is not exactly a stranger to the fearsomely bitchy world of history book publishing, having had several spats of her own with Dr David Starkey, who recently accused female historians of using their good looks to push up sales and of "feminising history".

Worsley had retorted that if it wasn't insulting and degrading enough to judge historians by their looks, she would point out that Starkey looks like "a cross owl. I don't think he's happy with me. He's ludicrous and was just showing off," she says, although she also concedes that he is a "brilliant historian".

Yet she remains defensive about the current trend for popularising social history and, especially, women from the past. "There's a craze for popular …

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Publication information: Article title: It Is Time for Princess Diana to Take Her Place in History; Kensington Palace Curator Lucy Worsley Tells Katie Law about Tragic Princesses, Feuding Academics and Why She Thinks Having Children Would Hamper Her Career. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Evening Standard (London, England). Publication date: April 27, 2010. Page number: 20. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2010 Gale Group.

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