At the end of this month, Aug. 31, it will be 29 years since the death of Princess Diana. While speculation about that night and the tragic car crash still resurfaces from time to time, and people around the world continue to believe it was not an accident, the late princess’ brother, Earl Charles Spencer, is promising to reveal new details about his sister’s life and death.
Spencer’s memoir, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," is due to be published in September and promises a deeply personal look at his relationship with his sister, including details he has never previously disclosed.
Any chance of a pre-order?
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Even before its publication, the book has already been described overseas as historically significant. Spencer has said it will address his sister’s unhappy marriage and the turbulent days following her death.
“With the 30th anniversary of Diana’s tragic death on the skyline, I’ve been inundated yet again with requests for interviews about my sister,” he said. “This has convinced me to write down my own thoughts and memories, once and for all, rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others, many of which are based on untruths that have become accepted over time.”
As of now, the book is expected to be published in 12 languages and offer an unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes of a tumultuous week during which the House of Windsor was shaken by a global wave of grief and public anger.
Charles Spencer, it will be recalled, delivered a searing and defiant eulogy at Diana’s funeral at Westminster Abbey, which was broadcast to a vast global audience of 2.5 billion people.
During the powerful address, he stressed that his sister “needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.”
He also pledged that Diana’s “blood family” would protect Princes William and Harry “so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.”
His words moved the crowds gathered outside the abbey so deeply that their applause was eventually echoed by those inside.
Promised to protect William and Harry; Charles Spencer with William, Harry and Charles at Diana’s funeral
(Photo: Jayne Fincher/Getty Images)
Speaking Tuesday about his forthcoming book, Spencer said: “The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral. As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.
“I hope this book will be of interest to the many who still cherish the memory of Diana when she was alive. I would be delighted if those too young to remember her in her heyday feel, after reading this, that they ‘get’ who she really was: a one-off, dynamic character, full of love, charisma and self-doubt, who gave life a hell of a go, and left the world a far better place, despite exiting the stage while still so young.”
Diana and Charles as children
(Photo: PA Images via Getty Images)
Royal fans will likely remember that in the days before the funeral, a heated dispute unfolded behind the scenes over the decision to have William and Harry walk in Diana’s funeral procession.
In his memoir "Spare," Harry revealed that his uncle had loudly opposed the idea at the time, describing as “barbaric” the prospect of the boys, then 15 and 12, walking behind their mother’s coffin during the funeral.
Harry also revealed that when an alternative plan was suggested in which William would walk alone behind the coffin, he objected, saying he did not want his brother to go through such a difficult experience by himself.
She meant so much to so many women; Diana
(Photo: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
Earlier this year, Spencer spoke about how “fundamentally unhappy” he becomes each year on the anniversary of his sister’s death and how difficult he finds it when strangers tell him where they were when Diana died.
“It’s different things to different people, particularly to women of a similar age,” he said. “They really invested their lives in hers. Maybe they had an unhappy marriage, maybe they battled an eating disorder. There’s plenty of Diana to look into and take your bit out of – almost like a horoscope, you can make it make sense for you.”
29 years since her death, and the public still hasn’t recovered
(Photo: Associated Press)
“This is a book of historic importance, telling as it does the story of one of the twentieth century’s most iconic and culturally significant figures, but it is also utterly unique in being written by Earl Spencer, from a vantage point of such intimacy,” said Daniel Bunyard, the book’s publisher.
“It is extraordinarily moving, beautifully written and remarkably candid, in no small part due to Charles’s rare ability to access great emotional depth without sentimentality, honest observation without rancour, and warmth without gloss. For the first time, but also for all time, readers will find here a fitting tribute to the beloved woman who was Princess Diana.”