SIMON TOPLISS COMMENTS: DO you realise that it is now two years since the Princess of Wales retired from her public life?

Or did that happen in the Twilight Zone, some strange and surreal dimension where alternative realities are played out?

And if you think that sentence is hard to follow, then consider the truth: the Princess of Wales retired from public life.

I haven't heard her announcing a come-back, so presumably she still is retired. Gordon Bennett - just imagine if she was still working her way through a full social calendar! There wouldn't be enough minutes in the day.

There wouldn't be enough journalists in the land to cover the stories. Whole equatorial rain forests would have to be culled just to provide the necessary paper.

We are certainly fascinated by the Princess. But do we love her or do we hate her? Is she a "mad, sexless, manipulative monster", or a "sincere" woman with "genuine warmth, humour", and a captivating "recklessness" which makes her irresistible to men?

That two such divergent opinions can exist says a lot.

That two such divergent opinions can exist inside the same man (Mr Auberon Waugh) indicates the presence of a phenomenon in our midst.

Which perhaps explains the famous portrait by Henry Mee. The artist was torn between representing the exterior beauty and the internal anguish of the subject, or rather he was torn between representing his own fascination with the beauty of the sitter and his own repulsion at the . . .

I think I had better stop there. Over analysis produces only confusion.

Love her? Hate her? Why not do both?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.