In life and death, Diana shook the House of Windsor

LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) In life and death, Princess Diana shook the House of Windsor to the core.

Critics have not always been kind to ''The People's Princess'' in the decade since her death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, but none would deny she mattered.

Among royal watchers who spent their careers following the world's most photographed woman live out a royal soap opera, few doubt her effect on a staid royal household that abhorred histrionics and never abandoned the British stiffer upper lip.

''She gave the monarchy a jolt. She was determined to make it less remote and she led by example on that,'' said former BBC royal correspondent Jenni Bond, who spent almost 15 years covering the tribulations of the royals.

''The Queen said afterwards that lessons had to be learned from Diana's death. Slowly they have been. There has not been a massive change -- it's a question of evolution not revolution.'' The Observer newspaper, summing up her contradictions when reviewing a flood of Diana biographies, asked ''Was she shy or just sly? Compassionate or coldly calculating? The Queen of Hearts or the self-promoting chief executive of Brand Diana?'' Diana espoused a string of causes -- AIDS patients, lepers and landmine victims -- which, by the force of her fame, became headline news.

''The royal family are not stupid and they looked at the effect she was having and realised they were missing a trick,'' said royal biographer Penny Junor.

''She was behind a lot of modernisation. The way that things are done now has been largely influenced by her.'' HAGIOGRAPHIES, HATCHET JOBS