Nostalgia overrated, books should inspire to live, says screenwriter Sanjay at Hortus prelude

Arts & Culture, Books

Kochi: Nostalgia is overrated and childhood may not be something people want to go back to, Malayalam screenplay writer Sanjay said in Kochi on Friday. Sanjay stated his views which sound contrary to the common beliefs during an interaction with young writer Salini Nair at Bharata Mata College, Thrikkakara.

The duo shared their views on writing, language and life at ‘Hortus Vayana’ – a series of talks being held across the state ahead of the Hortus International Literary and Cultural Festival, organised by Malayala Manorama.The interaction between Sanjay and Salini were based on the latter’s debut novel ‘Poochakkuru’, published by Manorama Books.

Sanjay, who has co-authored several hit films with his brother Bobby, said he was impressed by ‘Poochakkuru’ for the way it deals with the theme of childhood. He said the work of fiction highlights the need to treat children with kindness and compassion.

“Have you ever felt kids are duly minded. We need to be a bit more kind towards kids. The biggest of crimes is hurting a child’s soul,” he said. Salini agreed, saying all children want to grow fast as they feel trapped in childhood. However, she said once grown up people feel like going back to childhood. Sanjay said he never felt so.

Sanjay said a book becomes great when it offers something new in a second reading. He cited ‘Poochakkuru’ as an example.

On her process of writing, Salini said she usually visualises the situations and characters. “I get emotional while writing emotional situations and laugh at my characters sometimes,” she said.

Sanjay said books should inspire a reader to live. “When you are reading a book you are reading yourself,” he said. The ‘Hortus’ festival is scheduled to be held on Kozhikode beach from November 1 to 3.

Florida book ban Book Publishers File Lawsuit, Say Florida Book Ban Law is Unconstitutional The publishers were joined by authors including John Green, Angie Thomas, and Julia Alvarez. Jay Waagmeester, Iowa Capital Dispatch

Arts & Culture, Books

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter A cohort of book publishers and award-winning authors have filed a legal challenge to the 2023 Florida law that enables challenges to books in school libraries. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando, alleges that the process of…

Scientists Say SpaceX Starship Explosion Tore a Hole in the Atmosphere

Science and Health

Temporarily, at least.Holy FailWhen SpaceX’s Starship rocket blew up — again — it punched a hole open in our atmosphere, according to new research.Four minutes after launching from SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas on November 18, the Starship’s superheavy booster exploded at an altitude of roughly 56 miles after separating from its second stage.This was followed by another explosion minutes later, when the surviving portion of the spaceship reached an altitude of 93 miles, and then combusted itself.Now, as detailed in a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, it appears that these events combined to create a temporary hole in a region of the upper atmosphere called the ionosphere, where charged particles, stripped of their electrons by solar radiation, form the final boundary between the Earth and the vacuum space.Sounds About RightThe ionosphere spans approximately 50 to 400 miles above the Earth’s surface. According to the researchers, the velocity of the Starship itself, which was traveling faster than the speed of sound, sent cone-like acoustic shock waves through this region.”They had a very large amplitude, but the most unexpected thing was that there were many oscillations and that the waves were propagating in a northerly direction,” study lead author Yury Yasyukevich, an atmospheric physicist at Russia’s Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, told Russian state-owned news agency TASS, translated from Russian. “Usually, when spacecraft are launched, waves are observed to propagate to the south.”Then when the explosions followed, the resulting sound waves caused the electrons to “disappear,” neutralizing the charge of atoms nearby — thus forming the ionospheric hole that spanned up to 1,200 miles. This is noteworthy, because “usually, such holes are formed as a result of chemical processes in the ionosphere due to interaction with engine fuel,” Yasyukevic said.As such, the researchers say this is the first documented detection of a non-chemical hole in the ionosphere formed as the result of a man-made explosion.Ions Be BygonesFortunately, this hole more or less healed after 30 to 40 minutes, the researchers said. Though the circumstances behind this one were unique, these are relatively common events, as the exhaust from rocket launches can cause ionized atoms to recombine and lose their charge. Natural phenomena, like volcanic eruptions, can also create ionospheric disruptions.Starship’s fiery demise actually provided a rare glimpse of how the ionosphere is impacted by such events, especially weaker ones, which can be difficult to detect, Yasyukevich said.And what they’ve learned so far is puzzling: the researchers didn’t expect the size of the disruption to be this big. “It means we don’t understand processes which take place in the atmosphere,” Yasyukevich told Nature. Let that be food for thought.More on the atmosphere: SpaceX’s Starlink May Be Keeping the Ozone From Healing, Research FindsShare This Article

Our Galaxy Appears to Be Touching Another Galaxy, Scientists Say

Science and Health

The “Milky Way and Andromeda are already overlapping and interacting.”Personal SpaceResearchers are suggesting that the outer boundary of our home Milky Way galaxy may stretch much farther into the vastness of space than initially thought — and is in fact already touching its closest neighbor, the galaxy Andromeda.As detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the international team of scientists posits a new definition for the boundary between interstellar space and the “circumgalactic medium,” (CGM) the cloud of gas that surrounds galaxies.Until now, this bubble of gases has been elusive to scientists, forcing them to analyze the light absorbed by celestial objects like quasars to study it, despite the CGM accounting for roughly 70 percent of a galaxy’s mass.Previous Hubble observations had predicted that the Milky Way is destined for a “head-on” collision with Andromeda in a matter of four billion years.The latest data, however, suggests that the collision may have techncially already started.”It’s highly likely that the CGMs of our own Milky Way and Andromeda are already overlapping and interacting,” said Swinburne University associate professor Nikole Nielsen in a statement.Galaxies PressedBy using cutting-edge deep space imaging techniques, the team had a far more detailed look, peering some 100,000 light years into space.”We’re now seeing where the galaxy’s influence stops, the transition where it becomes part of more of what’s surrounding the galaxy, and, eventually, where it joins the wider cosmic web and other galaxies,” said Nielsen. “But in this case, we seem to have found a fairly clear boundary in this galaxy between its interstellar medium and its circumgalactic medium.”The conditions inside this cloud of gas surrounding galaxies are surprisingly different than those within the galaxies.”In the CGM, the gas is being heated by something other than typical conditions inside galaxies, this likely includes heating from the diffuse emissions from the collective galaxies in the Universe and possibly some contribution is due to shocks,” Nielsen explained.”It’s this interesting change that is important and provides some answers to the question of where a galaxy ends,” she added.The team used the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to make their observation.”It is the very first time that we have been able to take a photograph of this halo of matter around a galaxy,” said Swinburne University professor Emma Ryan-Weber in the statement.The researchers are hoping to shed new light on how galaxies evolve and how they accrete and expel gases.”The circumgalactic medium plays a huge role in that cycling of that gas,” Nielsen said. “So, being able to understand what the CGM looks like around galaxies of different types — ones that are star-forming, those that are no longer star-forming, and those that are transitioning between the two — we can observe [how] changes in this reservoir may actually be driving the changes in the galaxy itself.”More on galaxies: Astronomers Puzzled by Galaxy With No StarsShare This Article

Our Galaxy Appears to Be Touching Another Galaxy, Scientists Say

Science and Health

The “Milky Way and Andromeda are already overlapping and interacting.”Personal SpaceResearchers are suggesting that the outer boundary of our home Milky Way galaxy may stretch much farther into the vastness of space than initially thought — and is in fact already touching its closest neighbor, the galaxy Andromeda.As detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the international team of scientists posits a new definition for the boundary between interstellar space and the “circumgalactic medium,” (CGM) the cloud of gas that surrounds galaxies.Until now, this bubble of gases has been elusive to scientists, forcing them to analyze the light absorbed by celestial objects like quasars to study it, despite the CGM accounting for roughly 70 percent of a galaxy’s mass.Previous Hubble observations had predicted that the Milky Way is destined for a “head-on” collision with Andromeda in a matter of four billion years.The latest data, however, suggests that the collision may have techncially already started.”It’s highly likely that the CGMs of our own Milky Way and Andromeda are already overlapping and interacting,” said Swinburne University associate professor Nikole Nielsen in a statement.Galaxies PressedBy using cutting-edge deep space imaging techniques, the team had a far more detailed look, peering some 100,000 light years into space.”We’re now seeing where the galaxy’s influence stops, the transition where it becomes part of more of what’s surrounding the galaxy, and, eventually, where it joins the wider cosmic web and other galaxies,” said Nielsen. “But in this case, we seem to have found a fairly clear boundary in this galaxy between its interstellar medium and its circumgalactic medium.”The conditions inside this cloud of gas surrounding galaxies are surprisingly different than those within the galaxies.”In the CGM, the gas is being heated by something other than typical conditions inside galaxies, this likely includes heating from the diffuse emissions from the collective galaxies in the Universe and possibly some contribution is due to shocks,” Nielsen explained.”It’s this interesting change that is important and provides some answers to the question of where a galaxy ends,” she added.The team used the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to make their observation.”It is the very first time that we have been able to take a photograph of this halo of matter around a galaxy,” said Swinburne University professor Emma Ryan-Weber in the statement.The researchers are hoping to shed new light on how galaxies evolve and how they accrete and expel gases.”The circumgalactic medium plays a huge role in that cycling of that gas,” Nielsen said. “So, being able to understand what the CGM looks like around galaxies of different types — ones that are star-forming, those that are no longer star-forming, and those that are transitioning between the two — we can observe [how] changes in this reservoir may actually be driving the changes in the galaxy itself.”More on galaxies: Astronomers Puzzled by Galaxy With No StarsShare This Article

Looking Forward An Orthodox rabbi and a Reform journalist dance with the Torah Rabbi Dov Linzer’s and Abigail Pogrebin’s new book is a lesson on embracing diversity of thought, on both Torah and life By Jodi Rudoren 5 min read

Arts & Culture, Books

Rabbi Dov Linzer (left) and Abigail Pogrebin (right) speaking about their new book, “It Takes Two To Torah” at a launch event on Sept. 5. Photo by Michael Nagle

By Jodi Rudoren
September 6, 2024

A passage in this week’s Torah portion says that when a king ascends the throne, he must write his own version of the scroll, keep it with him, and “read it all the days of his life so he may learn to revere God.”
Rabbi Dov Linzer, who has spent decades studying Torah daily, always saw this as a lesson in humility. Even the king must constantly be reminded that the real ruler — writer of the scroll, maker of the laws — is divine.
Then Linzer parsed the text with Abigail Pogrebin, a journalist and author who grew up secular but became a bat mitzvah at age 40 and later president of Central Synagogue, one of the largest in the country. She focused on the “read it all the days” part and declared the passage to be about “lifelong learning.”

Which is, of course, exactly what both of them were doing, and what they hope we will all do, with their new book, It Takes Two to Torah.

“Many people say, ‘Why are we reading these same exact words every year?’ This parsha is the answer to me,” Pogrebin told me, using the Hebrew word for portion., and referring to Shoftim, Judges, the portion Jews worldwide will read this Shabbat.
“Shoftim really shouted out this idea of needing Torah with you all the time,” she explained. “There’s a sense of having to keep learning it. This isn’t something that is finished. It is ongoing, and you owe something to it.”
The authors with Rabbi David Wolpe, left, at their book launch event Thursday at Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center on the Upper East Side. Photo by Michael Nagle
It’s cliché but also true that they’re an unlikely pair. He, nerdy and Orthodox, always in a suit and tie, a bit pale perhaps from spending so many hours in the beit midrash, study hall, dissecting text with other Orthodox men (and a few women). She, Manhattan-cool and Reform, often in a sleeveless top and tailored pants, daughter of the feminist legend Letty Cotton Pogrebin and professional poser of good questions.
They both really love being Jewish. And, like many couples, they make each other laugh.
They are not married — well, not to each other. They are chevruta: study partners.
The root of the Hebrew word is chaver, which means friend, but the idea is really that any two people can come together over text and unpack it. Linzer, 57, and Pogrebin, 59, shared the fruit of their partnership first on a podcast called Parsha in Progress, with 10-minute episodes on each of the Torah’s 54 chapters. They decided to turn those conversations into a book so people could find them all in one place and, perhaps, continue the conversation in chevruta of their own.
“To bring Torah to a much broader range of people, make people realize that Torah has a lot to say for their lives,” was how Linzer summed up the goal of the project.
“There’s a lot of great insight and content, but what’s really unique is what it’s modeling,” he added. “There’s all this white space on the page. That’s what invites people in.”
The duo first met 15 years ago at a conference hosted by the New York Jewish Week called, appropriately, The Conversation. They kept in touch — Pogrebin helped Linzer write an op-ed for The New York Times on religion and modesty; when she was working on a series of articles for the Forward that became her 2017 book My Jewish Year, he often got late-night texts fact-checking some point of Jewish law.
“There was something unexpectedly meaningful about calling each other to talk something through,” Pogrebin, who is a friend and a supporter of the Forward, said when the three of us spoke yesterday.

“When Abby would ask me a question, sometimes I would have to research it a little bit,” added Linzer. “She was asking me a question, but we wound up learning from each other, because her questions were so probing. Normally, the questions that get asked to me are all within these very narrowly defined parameters.”
There is a fundamental difference in how they approach the text. She sees Torah as a book of collected wisdom that has bound the Jewish people over generations, which offers insights into how to live but also contains many problematic passages. He sees it as a divine outline of his religious obligations.
“I’m pre-committed to finding a resolution, to it being God-given and a good text and a binding text,” Linzer explained when asked about this by Rabbi David Wolpe at last night’s launch event for the book, whose publication date is Tuesday.
“He has to find a positive lens on a thing that I find very difficult,” Pogrebin said. “Sometimes, I feel like you’re pretzeling.”
Take, for example, the “Sotah ritual,” a test the Torah outlines for women accused of adultery. They are supposed to drink an inky liquid, and if their stomach distends, they are found guilty and punished. Pogrebin read and re-read the passages describing this and declared it “horrific.” Linzer, who sees the Torah “as a book for all time but also of its time,” argued that Sotah was actually a progressive response to patriarchal societies where women accused of cheating could be summarily executed.
“I thought that I’d really dealt with it and come up with a very gratifying answer,” Linzer said in our interview. “And then to realize, it’s gratifying for you that’s already in Orthodoxy, and committed and needs it all to work. But for anybody from the outside, you still have this text that is just so harsh and against our morés and values.”
Two guests at the event hand each other a copy of the book. Photo by Michael Nagle
They struggled a bit with guardrails for their own conversations, because Linzer insisted on critiquing the text with reverence. If Pogrebin asked, “Is this text sexist?” he would ask her to reframe that as, “Do I experience the text as sexist?” When she said, “Are these the right Ten Commandments?” He would respond, “Are these the right Ten Commandments for you?”
Now that they’re heading out on book tour, there are other such issues to navigate. Linzer, president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an Orthodox rabbinical school in the Bronx, decided he would speak in non-Orthodox synagogues on Shabbat, so long as he himself is not on a microphone. At last night’s book party, Pogrebin was apologetic that the little tins of mints she ordered with the image of the book cover — they jokingly called them the Ten Commandmints — were not certified kosher.
“We don’t have to believe the same things about the divinity of the text,” Linzer said. “But I don’t want to feel my buttons being pushed.”
“Many people say, ‘Why are we reading these same exact words every year?’ This isn’t something that is finished. It is ongoing, and you owe something to it.”
– Abigail Pogrebin, co-author, It Takes Two to Torah

This felt to me like the heart of the matter, and not just for studying Torah in chevruta with someone from a different religious background. It applies equally to journalism and politics in our polarized world.
The key is to help people to engage with ideas that are unfamiliar without pushing their buttons in a way that makes them shut down.
This summer, my daughter, Shayna, was lucky to be part of the Bronfman Fellowship, a leadership program focused on Jewish pluralism. Bronfman brings together rising high school seniors from different backgrounds — Reform, secular and frum; Jewish day school and not — for five weeks of study and travel. Shayna called home the first weekend to say a few of them had stayed up till 3:45 a.m., “solving pluralism.”
The essence, she explained later, is to remove the barriers to entry for everyone — to try not to push anybody’s buttons — and then for everyone to accept that they will be somewhat uncomfortable once they get inside.
It’s a delicate dance. Which is why it takes at least two to Torah.

Jodi Rudoren has been editor-in-chief of the Forward since 2019. She previously spent 21 years at The New York Times, including a stint as Jerusalem bureau chief. Twitter: @rudoren. Email: [email protected].
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

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‘The Deliverance’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New Movie

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

At long last, we have a really great Netflix original movie at #1 in the Top 10 list, dethroning the former #1, a truly terrible Netflix original movie. That awful movie is the horror film The Deliverance, and that good movie is Rebel Ridge, which has now debuted at #1 and is being widely watched as we speak.

The Deliverance reviewed horribly, supposedly based on a “true” ghost story (which was debunked in multiple ways). It has a 32% from critics, who are generally predisposed to be pretty kind to many horror movies, and a 47% from audiences, not much better. Thankfully, it has been replaced by a film doing much better, Rebel Ridge, which unlike a similarly-named Netflix original, Rebel Moon, is reviewing excellently with a 94% critic score and an 82% audience score. Here is the official synopsis for the film:

“Terry Richmond enters the town of Shelby Springs on a simple but urgent mission— post bail for his cousin and save him from imminent danger. But when Terry’s life’s savings is unjustly seized by law-enforcement, he’s forced to go head to head with local police chief Sandy Burnne and his combat-ready officers. Terry finds an unlikely ally in court clerk Summer McBride and the two become ensnared in a deep-rooted conspiracy within the remote township. As the stakes turn deadly, Terry must call upon his mysterious background to break the department’s hold on the community, bring justice to his own family— and protect Summer in the process.”

Netflix Top 10Netflix
The film does not boast any truly major stars. It’s led by Aaron Pierre whose longest stint was on the Syfy show Krypton before this. The most recognizable name in the cast is Don Johnson of Miami Vice fame. I know who AnnaSophia Robb is, as I remember from roles when she was much younger like Race to Witch Mountain and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now, somehow, she’s 30. Time flies.

It looks to be excellent and I will be giving it a watch this weekend. Frankly, I am a little surprised that the newly added Sonic the Hedgehog movie is at #3, given all the hype for the third movie with its trailer just released. I figured it would probably be #1, but not so. Emma Stone’s Aloha was up pretty high a few days ago but now it’s down to #5 as perhaps people realized that it’s actually terrible. Former #1, the also-bad Netflix Original The Union is down to #8. Super Mario Bros. still refuses to fall off the list at #10. Incredible.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

Princess Diana’s dance teacher reveals ‘agonizing’ details of Di’s heartbreak and bulimia in new book

Arts & Culture, Books

In 1986, in the middle of a ballet class with her longtime teacher, a willowy Princess Diana sat on the floor, tears welling in her eyes.

“I just can’t seem to do anything right when it comes to my husband. I do love him so much and want him to be proud of me, but I don’t think he feels the same way,” she said, according to Anne Allan, the author of the new memoir, “Dancing with Diana,” out Tuesday. “I don’t understand why I am not enough for him; I think he prefers an older woman … I know he is seeing Camilla again.” 

Diana started taking dance lessons with Allan just weeks after her fairytale wedding to Prince Charles at St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981. 

Diana rehearsed in private for her top-secret performance with Wayne Sleep at the Royal Opera House in December 1985. Reg Wilson/REX/Shutterstock

The princess and Allan, a London City Ballet dancer, became close friends, with Di confiding in her over the years as she grew increasingly unhappy in her marriage.

The emotional moment in 1986 was the first time that Allan had ever heard of Camilla Parker-Bowles.

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“Why does he not love me? I really don’t understand. I have tried everything, tried to conform to his wishes even though I don’t always agree,” Diana said.

“There’s no affection between us, and I am always on my own. I just want to be loved. I can’t keep going on like this. They are really expecting me to just say nothing and keep going. How do I do that?”

Charles was not happy about his wife’s love of dance. Allan saw this firsthand in December 1985 after she helped Diana rehearse with their mutual friend, ballet dancer Wayne Sleep, for a surprise performance at the Royal Opera House.

Former London City Ballet dancer and ballet mistress Anne Allan gave Diana private lessons for seven years. David Leyes

The 5-foot-11 princess joined Sleep, who is just 5-foot-2, to dance to Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl,” chosen specifically by Diana.

After coming off stage, Diana laughed and exclaimed, “Beats the wedding!” according to Allan. 

“She made her way to Charles, and as she stood before him, I could sense she desperately wanted his approval. He said, ‘Well done, darling’, and turned to talk with someone else. I sensed disapproval from him and my heart took a thud,” Allan writes.

Diana often wrote to Allan and invited her to Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. dancingwithdianabook/Instagram

Although other guests praised Diana, Allan recalls, “I was acutely conscious of those from the royal circle who did not say anything to her and looked down their nose at me, their disapproval evident.”

Still, Diana told her she would never forget the evening.

At their next lesson, “with a bit of a naughty grin on her face” Diana admitted that Charles “had not liked her showing herself in that way.”

Ballet dancer Wayne Sleep performed a routine to “Uptown Girl” with Diana. News Group/Shutterstock

Sleep was 5-foot-2, compared to Diana’s 5-foot-11. News Group/Shutterstock

The performance had been kept secret for months, but Allan says Prince Charles was less than thrilled. News Group/Shutterstock

Things got worse. 

In 1987, Diana was left bereft by the death of her police bodyguard and reported lover Brian Mannakee in a motorbike accident.

Diana would later describe Mannakee as her “the greatest love” in tapes recorded by her voice coach, Peter Settelen,

Soon after Mannakee’s death, Diana told Allen that Charles wanted to live separate lives, admitting, “All I want is to be with Charles and be loved by him, there’s just emptiness just now … he runs off to Camilla whenever he can. It’s not at all what I want. I’d like the marriage to work, but it just isn’t for now. Do I just put up with it, hoping he will change?”

By the time the Prince and Princess of Wales toured Australia in 1988, their marriage had broken down. Brendan Beirne/Shutterstock

When Allan asked if she could live without love and sex, Diana “blushed” and said she had met someone who made her feel “much better about herself.”

It was later revealed that she had embarked on an affair with Major James Hewitt in 1986.

“It made me happy to know that someone was caring for her in an affectionate, loving way, even though I was concerned that it might cause her hurt if it became known,” Allan writes.

Diana hit the headlines when she danced with John Travolta at the White House in November 1985. Reuters Photographer

As Diana’s marriage disintegrated, she once again “dropped” to the floor sobbing, Allan remembers, and said she was in an “unbearable situation,” having not seen her husband in weeks.

“Diana wanted Charles to be with her and to love her. Even though she was in her own romantic affair, at this point, Charles was still the man she desired and that was why it was so agonizing for her.”

After this, Diana’s Lady-in-Waiting, Anne Beckwith-Smith, called to say the princess may want to stop her lessons, but when Allan asked Diana, she was “annoyed”, making it clear it was the Palace who wanted to end things.

Travolta famously twirled Diana around the dance floor. AP

Soon afterwards, Diana said that she was “ashamed” to admit she was suffering from bulimia.

Allan had feared as much after Diana fainted during a trip to Vancouver in 1987.

“I gathered that the Palace had concerns and were aware, or at least suspected the problem,” she writes. “I realized that they may have been worried that it could be dangerous if anyone from the outside world found out … The more I thought, the angrier I felt. If the ‘establishment’ knew definitively, had anyone reached out to offer help and guidance? It didn’t seem that they had. Had they dismissed this disease as a sign of weakness, not understanding the mental anguish Diana was in?”

Diana’s bulimia was exacerbated by her marriage woes, leaving Allan “angry” at the future King’s affair with Camilla.

Diana wept as she revealed her marriage issues to her dance teacher. Getty Images

“Did Charles think that this was acceptable behavior, and that Diana should just turn her back and ignore what was going on? Was he relieved that his wife was in her own extramarital affair? Did it affect him at all? It didn’t seem so,” she writes.

In one romantic gesture, Diana laid out a picnic for her and Charles at Highgrove, his country estate, but when the prince saw the table, “he immediately dropped her hand and said, “I don’t eat outside. Get the butler to take it all in immediately.”

“In that instant,” Allan writes, “a bit more of her died. Her loving intention was destroyed by a few strong words.”

Diana told Allan, “I know he’s seeing Camilla again”, of her husband and Camilla Parker-Bowles (above). Shutterstock

Allan also portrays the famous moment Diana asked Camilla, of whom she was “quite frightened” to leave Charles alone at a birthday party for Camilla’s sister, Annabel Elliot, in 1989.

She writes, “At one point Camilla made a very strange comment that further propelled Diana. ‘You have everything in the world,’ Camilla said. ‘Men falling for you and two beautiful children. What more could you want?’ ‘I want my husband,’ was Diana’s firm reply.”

Di gleefully told Allan about the events of the “momentous” night and how, driving home together, Charles “was all over [her] like a little boy who has done something wrong and is wanting back in your good books.”

Camilla became Queen Camilla at the coronation she shared with King Charles in May 2023. ZUMAPRESS.com

“I thoroughly enjoyed hearing every detail, but more than anything loved Diana’s brave and bold accomplishment,” Allan writes.

Diana danced through both of her pregnancies, the author notes, and she was one of the first people in whom Diana confided she was expecting William.

Although Netflix hit “The Crown” shows Diana giving Charles a video of her performing “All I ask of You” from “Phantom of the Opera”, Allan says in fact, she secretly recorded herself performing to the theme tune from “Top Gun” for her sons – not Charles.

Diana fought with Charles over how to raise their sons, William (right) and Harry. Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images

The princess also found a sense of accomplishment in having Allan secretly record her performing to the theme song from “Top Gun” for her to share with her beloved sons. (The press at the time reported that she had recorded “All I Ask of You” from “Phantom of the Opera” for Charles. The Netflix hit “The Crown” also shows this.)

Diana laughed afterwards and sent Allan a letter saying she enjoyed watching the VHS. 

“I see a lot of mistakes as do William & Harry who have great enjoyment pointing out mummy with her head down or ‘why aren’t you smiling,’” the letter read.

Diana, seen at the London Festival Ballet in Oslo, Norway, in 1984, had years of secret dance lessons with Allan. Shutterstock

But the fun was over when Beckwith-Smith asked for all the footage to be sent back to the palace.

“It turns out that they wanted to make sure the film did not get into the wrong hands. I was irate. My loyalty was being questioned, and being a Scot, loyalty and trust are huge things,” writes Allan, who does not reveal whether she still has the tapes in her possession.

When Allan moved back home to Scotland and then to Toronto their classes stopped, but she kept in touch with Diana.

Diana became patron of the London City Ballet. Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images

The last time the friends spoke was after the death of Diana’s father, Earl Spencer, in March 1992, the same year she and Charles officially separated. (They divorced in August 1996.) 

She was left “numb” and devastated by Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

Of Diana, she reminisces, “In our classes, she was nothing but her true self. Dance allowed the light within her to burn brighter, and I was given the extraordinary honor of being a part of it.