Former President of France Valery Giscard d'Estaing, 83, is in the media spotlight again after writing a romantic novel about a French leader’s steamy love affair with a British princess. Both characters are modeled after himself and the late Princess Diana of Wales, according to
AFP.
The first-person presidential narrator recounts the time he first met the princess, “I kissed her hand and she gave me a questioning look, her slate grey eyes widening as she tilted her head gently forward.”
The French daily newspaper
Le Figaro says it’s highly above regular romantic novels because it is so well written. It also explains how Giscard’s novel will be one of the many to cash in on the posthumous Diana and may cause gossip columns to run rampant because it is so detailed that there might be an element of truth.
In real life Diana was 20 when she met Giscard, while he was 55.
Princess Patricia, as Princess Diana, shares her passion of helping children with AIDS in Africa and campaign against anti-personnel mines. President Lambertye also has close intricate details of Giscard except for one thing. Lambertyne wins a second term in the novel with 56 per cent; however, Giscard was kicked out of office in 1981 after being accused of accepting diamonds from Emperor Bokassa of Central Africa
Diana died in 1997 in a road accident in Paris with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed.
“Princess and the President” will be released in Paris on October 1 by book publishers Fallois-xo, reports the
Telegraph. According to
BBC, Giscard is an accomplished writer. The ousted French President has written memoirs, political books and one romantic novel, previous to his latest one.
