The faculty of awe remains intact, for all that the royal story in recent years has taken a sordid turn. … But a new world began, I think, in 1980, with the discovery that Diana, the future Princess of Wales, had legs. … A sort of licentiousness took hold, a national lip-smacking. Those gangling limbs were artlessly exposed, without her permission. It was the first violation.

Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self-…, loc. 1185