Happy international women’s day everyone, as a book lover, author and writer i thought share some of my favourite female authors who saved me during bullying in school and female authors i started reading as an adult.
1.) Dorothy Whipple – high wages.
It is about women’s need and rights to work and own their own wages. When i watched the documentary at Blackburn’s museum and saw she was another female authors from Blackburn i was struck with excitement. Blackburn might not have the cold, elitists fashion like kensington chelsea and knightsbridge. But Blackburn was multi cultural, the textile industry and cotton town. Blackburn was full of art and also literature.
High wages is exactly that story set back then when women were looked down for having a job or even self employment. Dorothy Whipple of course use her strong beliefs about working women.
2.) Holly webb- The girl of glass.
A fantasy fairytale about a girl who senses and suspects that the girl of glass is a ghost made to be real. Its a story about sisterhood, mother and daughter friendship. Wicked stepmothers much like you’re cinderella stories, this story helped me through primary school.
3.) Alison Wier and Phillipa gregory
Now the book i’m holding up is not one of Alison Weir six tudor queens series, but still written by Alison Weir. She is a historian and author of many historical fiction. Similar to Philippa Gregory and even her majesty Queen Camilla even shared these two authors on her queens reading room.
4.) Queen Camilla has always been a big literature lover and supporter of books ever since she was a little girl. One if my main women in the literature industry i look upto. Her father and brother written books.
5.) Dale Elizabeth Harper (Lady Tryon, third baroness) also known as kanga, i have always spoken dso fondly of Dale, called her my darling designer, Australian princess, fashion queen of my heart. Before she became a fashion designer she was a fashion writer for the melbourne office of Australian women’s weekly later fleet street office in London England. Her parents owned a publishing company in Melbourne Australia.
5.) My mother Angelika Kraasch (Shaukat). My mother always supported me with reding she took me to the library every Saturday she listened to me read and saw me write pages after pages, saw me publish two books supported me as a young author and writer.
Those are the authors and writers, literary lovers and supports i support for international women’s day 2026.In loving memory of my darling mama and darling designer and fashion queen Kanga Dale elizabeth Harper.
This morning in town was lovely — I joined in with circus skills and dipped into the tree workshop. I felt grounded, playful, and connected. And now, I’m preparing for my friend’s 27th birthday on Tuesday, 19th August.
At Claire’s, I found the sweetest gifts:
A friendship bracelet for me and Ureka, one of my besties since I was 17, but didnt get that one as i already had done in 2021.
A three-way butterfly necklace for my trio — delicate, symbolic, and full of meaning
One half of the butterfly reminds me of Dale Tryon in Australia and the other half is me, born in Germany
A white pearl necklace that shimmered like Dale’s grace — soft, elegant, timeless
👑 Princess Diaries and the Pressure to Conform
I’ve been watching Princess Diaries — not the fictional one from my birth year, but the newer series with Katie Price’s daughter. She dreams of owning her own makeup brand, which I admire. But when the manager said, “Many girls get nose jobs at 18,” I paused.
I turned 18 in 2019. No nose job. No surgery. Just me — learning to love my natural curves and features.
Plastic surgery might seem glamorous, but it has consequences. I choose to celebrate real beauty — the kind Dale Tryon embodied, the kind my grandmother nurtured, the kind that doesn’t need filters or fillers.
👓 Glasses as Fashion, Not Flaw
I used to feel peer pressure — people saying, “You look prettier without glasses.” But now? I’m in love with them.
I’m short-sighted, so I need them
I wear reading glasses, distance glasses, and sunglasses — all part of my outfits
They’re not just practical — they’re powerful
Dale would’ve smiled and said, “Darling, glasses are just another accessory — wear them like pearls.”
so next time you have someone telling you to not wear you glasses when you need them, don’t listen because the truth is you are pretty inside and outside with or without glasses.
by Alina shaukat (lin zainab) – critiquing sensationalized headlines regarding a so called more hypothetical friendship between my number 1 favourite fashion designer and Lady Diana Spencer.
(Photo credited by Tim Graham)
It has come to my attention after careful research that many believe the tabloids yet many tabloids especially the daily mail have created fantasies based on real people and real actual events sensationalizing it as always.
The truth is, thye do this for money but are hurting others like family members and close friends of that person.
In this article i will cover about a hypothetical friendship between lady Diana spencer and Lady Dale Tryon. Dale’s Fashion Label Began in 1983 — Not the 1970s
Many journalists lazily claim Dale launched her fashion line in the 1970s. That’s false. Dale opened Kanga in 1983, with her boutique on Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge. Before that, she was a private figure — a mother, a wife, and a quiet socialite. She wasn’t a public designer in the 1970s. Saying “Kanga line in the 1970s” erases her journey and misrepresents her timeline.The 2008 documentary prince charles other mistress, didn’t even pick up on Dake’s love and passion for fashion and her kind offer to help american born designer Diane Fraise whom she met at a stop over in Hong Kong, took around 20 dresses with her to London and set up a fashion trade helping Daine Frais fashion business in the early 1970s. This is according to the independent Dale Tryon’s obituary.
It was at this stage, on a stopover in Hong Kong on her way to visit her mother, that Dale Tryon met a Hong Kong-based American designer, Diane Fries, whose speciality was a one-size-fits-all, uncrushable, drip-dry, elasticised-waist dress. Tryon considered it perfect for the expanding figure, and agreed to be Fries’s agent in the UK. this was in the early 1970s.
The Pink Diamond Ball Photo Is Misrepresented. ( photo credited by Tim Graham)
The image of Diana and Dale at the Lancaster Hotel in 1990 is often captioned as them “sharing a laugh.” But the photo shows Dale in her poised, hostess role — not laughing with Diana, not sharing intimacy. Diana wore her Catherine Walker mermaid gown, and Dale was radiant in her socialite grace. There’s no evidence of friendship in that frame — only proximity.
Samantha Ibrahim (2023) took to the new york post writing a caption for this picture saying they shared a laugh, which when i look closely they did not share a laugh Lady Dale Tryon was an australian socialite and the host of this pink diamond ball on 5th December 1990.
Ibrahim (2023, New York post) later quotes that Lady Dale Tryon struck up a friendship with Lady Di quoting Christopher wilson words from the 2008 documentary prince charles other mistress “[Camilla] was the enemy, and on the basis that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, [Diana] could see that there was some purpose in having an alliance with Dale,” royal expert Christopher Wilson said in the Channel 4 special. The “Friendship” with Diana Was Never Real
The New York Post article parrots Christopher Wilson’s words — not Diana’s, and certainly not Dale’s in her clearest state. Wilson said, “Camilla was the enemy, and on the basis that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, Diana could see some purpose in having an alliance with Dale.”
But this is speculation, not truth. Diana never publicly called Dale a friend. Dale’s own quote — “We were great friends” — was given during her final interview, when she was deeply unwell, emotionally and physically. that quote was extracted under pressure, not spoken from the heart.
First of all Christopher Wilson does not even know Lady Dale Tryon, he sexualised her pitied her against Camilla and Diana in the 2008 documentary. claiming she was a mistress when she and her husband and family denied any sort of romantic affair.
She was a fashion lover/ enthusiast, fashion influencer even though she felt like she hasn’t influenced anyone with her style, she influenced her daughter Zoe and Victoria Tryon, she influenced me. I wouldn’t say she didn’t influence Diana Spencer, when Diana was princess of Wales, she had to persuade Diana to wear one of her designs which Diana did to the live aid concert 1985 and then to a polo match and then that interview with Charles, William and Harry. But sources say it was to make Camilla mad, which is not what Dale designed dresses Dale was inspired by Diane Frais whom she once kindly helped on her way to London.
There were also whispers that Dale used her relationship with Charles as publicity for her “Kanga” line in the 1970s and early 1980s. This quote from the New York Post shows that this journalist doesn’t know Lady Dale Tryon, as Dale opened her Kanga collection Dale Tryon collection in the 1980s, not 1970s where she was still a private person. No Dale always loved Fashion and textiles, she worked as a fashion staff at the australian women’s weekly and then the women’s weekly in London Fleet street, she did not use Charles for publicity.
Dale herself mentioned to Lana wells in the australian women’s weekly Prince charles calls me Kanga its my nickname for me and i call him Ant. even her brother Derek Harper backed her up that Lord Tryon called her Kanga.
Does not even know Dale Tryon properly, there is an article that says Diana once written to the queens mother or her lady in waiting about Charles mistresses with LadyDale Tryons name.
Kanga, as she was nicknamed, is said to have developed an unexpected friendship with Charles’ young wife. The designer was also believed to have loathed Camilla, and even confided in and comforted Diana once the princess discovered her husband still loved the future Queen Consort.
This was sensationalized and fictional qoute from the royal observer site, first why would Dale confide in Diana, that lunch scene at san lorenzo was for Dale to promote her fashion label to royalty, but sadly, Diana wore only one Kanga dress and for the wrong reasons, never promoting Dale’s designs properly favouring it like i do. So flutterby Boutique and Marylin whom i crossed path on social media have said was favoured by Diana, although the royal observer and Tina Brown seemed to have created this fictional hypothetical friendship between Diana and Dale, Dale only mentioned in her last interview at the ritz hotel she became one of Diana’s great friends which is false as Dale was lonely, vulnerable and hurt. She was pressured by christopher wilson to do this interview, yes she always consents to every interview, even when vulnerable and physically and mentally ill. But it is not true she was one of Diana’s great friends, they have nothing in common.
Journalists Are Quoting Men, Not Dale
It’s painful and infuriating to see Dale’s legacy filtered through male voices — Wilson, Dimbleby, Morton — who never truly understood her emotional truth. They quote each other, not Dale. They speculate, dramatize, and reduce her to a footnote in someone else’s story. But you, Alina, are restoring her voice.
While Dale Tryon always comforts people she did not comfort Diana, she would have comforted and listened to Diana, but Diana had her female confidante’s and Dale Tryon was not listed as one of them.
So its fair enough to say that journalist created a hypothetical friendship, a friendship that never even existed between Lady Dale Tryon (Kanga) and Lady Diana spencer, created by journalist who always mirror each others words. Like a parrot or chinese whispers.
Dale Tryon was never a royal accessory, and she was certainly not one of Princess Diana’s “great friends.” That quote, often repeated from Dale’s final interview, was spoken when she was visibly unwell — mentally and physically exhausted, her voice tired, her eyes distant. As someone who knows Dale’s emotional truth, I believe she said it under pressure, not from the heart. Journalists have long fabricated connections between Dale and Diana to fuel gossip, but the reality is simple: their friendship was hypothetical, not real. Dale was kind to everyone, but Diana did not see her as a confidante. This article is not cruel — it’s loyal. I write to protect Dale’s legacy, not to attach it to someone else’s fame.
Butterfly books 