Aussie essayist assails Princess Diana

BRISBANE, Australia, July 27 (UPI) -- Australian writer Germaine Greer, who has often skewered the dead, is taking on the late British Princess Diana, calling her "slow" and "devious."

Among the stronger invective aimed at the princess is Greer's claim that the late royal might have been partially to blame for the car crash that killed her and her companion Dodi Fayed, The Courier-Mail in Brisbane, Australia, reported Friday.

"The saddest thought of all is that Diana's death may have resulted indirectly from another of her ... manipulations; it is said that she only went to Paris with Dodi Fayed" to make another man jealous, Greer wrote in the essay to be published Saturday in Weekend Australian Magazine.

As a child, Greer claimed, "Diana was the slowest" of the four Spencer children. Greer also alleged "in adulthood Diana became more, rather than less devious."

"Diana's legacy is no more than endless column inches of adulation and speculation," the writer said.

Greer incurred outrage last year with her claim "the animal world (had) finally taken its revenge" on crocodile expert Steve Irwin after he was killed by a stingray barb.