She also dismisses the notion that Diana was a fashion icon. "She dressed to the same demotic standard of elegance as TV anchorwomen do."

In the essay, written to coincide with the impending 10th anniversary of Diana's death, Greer suggests the princess was partly responsible for her own untimely demise. "The saddest thought of all is that Diana's death may have resulted indirectly from another of her cack-handed manipulations; it is said that she only went to Paris with Dodi Fayed in order to make the heart surgeon Hasnat Khan jealous." Diana had a relationship with Khan after her divorce and is said to have wanted to marry him.

Greer, who has lived mostly in Britain for the past 40 years, is regarded as an embarrassing crackpot by many of her compatriots.

They claim her periodic withering critiques of Australia are based on an outdated, stereotypical image of her birthplace.

Greer provoked outrage last year when she wrote a vindictive piece about Steve Irwin, the 'Crocodile Hunter', shortly after he was killed by a stingray's barb. Writing in the Guardian, she said of the exuberant, khaki-clad Irwin, regarded as a national treasure by many Australians: "There was no habitat, no matter how fragile or finely balanced, that Irwin hesitated to barge into, trumpeting his wonder and amazement to the skies. . . Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress. . . The animal world has finally taken its revenge."

Her attack on the late Princess of Wales is equally vitriolic. "Of the four Spencer children, Diana was the slowest. Because of her slowness, she was easily found out in her preposterous fibs." She also claims Diana persuaded a younger schoolfriend to write a nasty letter to her father's second wife, Raine. "Apparently she didn't have the courage to write her own letter. . . in adulthood Diana became more, rather than less, devious. The same foolhardiness was at work not only in Diana's sexual adventures but also in her orchestration of her public persona."

Greer also criticises Diana's charity work, accusing her of "rushing into too many situations in which genuine angels would have feared to tread. . . Her habit of popping up in the midst of other people's life crises must have startled some of her victims. Diana's legacy is no more than endless column inches of adulation and speculation."

Greer, who shot to prominence in 1970 with her feminist bestseller The Female Eunuch, has embraced environments as varied as Newnham College in Cambridge, where she was a fellow and lecturer, and the Celebrity Big Brother house. She was a contestant in 2005 but walked out after five days, accusing the producers of psychological cruelty.

In response to previewed excerpts of her Diana essay one visitor to the website of News Limited, which publishes the Weekend Australian, writes: "Germaine, you have passed your use-by date. . . You need to be thrown in the rubbish bin."