Multiple copies of Earl Charles Spencer’s highly anticipated memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, have been stolen in a lorry robbery in the Netherlands.
Dutch authorities are investigating after a lorry carrying thousands of the books was broken into at a lay-by earlier this week, according to the Daily Mail.
Four copies of the memoir, concealed in black plastic wrapping to protect their contents, were taken from the vehicle after it had been left overnight during its journey from a Central European printing facility to a distribution warehouse.
The brazen break-in has thrown publication plans into disarray just days before the book’s worldwide release.
Earl Spencer’s memoir offers a deeply personal account of his relationship with his elder sister and her troubled marriage with the then-Prince of Wales.
The book also chronicles the tumultuous period that followed Diana’s fatal car accident in August 1997, when an unprecedented tide of public grief and fury swept over the House of Windsor.
Describing his upcoming work, Earl Spencer wrote on Instagram: “When I finished the recording, I thought: ‘That is exactly what I wanted and needed to say – and she would, I reckon, have approved of every word’.”
The work has been characterised as both “historic” and “extraordinarily moving”, providing an unparalleled window into the seismic days after the Princess’s death.
Earl Spencer’s decision to break his near three-decade silence lends the memoir particular weight and significance.
He said the constant flood of interview requests about his sister ultimately persuaded him to commit his recollections to paper.
“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,” he stated.
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He described the book’s purpose as an attempt to convey the truth about Diana from her brother’s vantage point, much as he sought to do during her funeral address.
Penguin Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is set to release Swan Song globally next Tuesday.
Buckingham Palace is understood to be preparing itself for a series of explosive disclosures that risk reopening painful chapters from the bitter breakdown and eventual divorce of the former Prince and Princess of Wales.
With the book due to be released after the 29th anniversary of the late Princess of Wales’ tragic death rather than the 30th, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams previously told GB News it shows the “close” relationship between the Spencers and the Sussexes.
“It’s a symbol of solidarity with Harry and with the Sussexes,” the expert said. “Obviously, because they’re close. It’s obvious.
Earl Spencer’s upcoming book, described by Daniel Bunyard as “a book of historic importance”, can be pre-ordered on TGJones for £14.
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