Charles Spencer is testing one of the lingering questions of our time: can the world ever get enough of his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales? It turns out the controversy surrounding her life has not faded nearly 30 years after her tragic death. In fact, Spencer's new book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister" (to be published Tuesday by Penguin Press), has pulled the scabs off some old wounds, especially when he recounts an unsettling conversion he says he had with Diana's ex-husband – now King Charles – shortly after she died: "He said about Diana, 'We'll forget her soon enough.' And he said it, I can't really recreate it, but it was said with a bit of a hiss, to be honest.
And I said, 'I can't believe you said that.'" You'd have to have been living under a rock not to know Diana's story … the daughter of one of England's grand aristocratic dynasties, chosen at just 19 to be the bride of the then-Prince Charles. Their seeming fairy-tale wedding, which turned into a rocky marriage, that ended in a bitter divorce. Her tragic early death in a Paris car crash.
It was a riveting, if sad, real-life soap opera, with an apparently insatiable worldwide audience. But why do a new book about such a well-known story? "With the 30th anniversary of her death coming up next year, I was getting inundated with requests to be in somebody else's book or documentary," Spencer said.
"And it suddenly occurred to me, well, if you're all so interested in hearing from me, I might just give you the definitive story." Diana has always divided opinion. She was the modern breath of fresh air who blew the cobwebs out of the fusty royals – or she was the upstart whose popularity threatened the old ways and undermined an institution that had done very nicely, thank you, by maintaining its aloofness and its mystery. Asked what he believes people have gotten wrong about Diana, Spencer replied, "I think people who picked at her and found fault with her did so without a true appreciation of the unique force that she was." Was it malice?
"I think a lot of people in the British establishment didn't know what to do with this totally rogue but brilliant force," Spencer said. "And there were a lot of attempts during her time on the public stage where they tried to suppress her. Diana would call them the 'men in gray suits' – people working for the royal family in particular." Charles Spencer is the 9th Earl Spencer.
His family has not endured near the top of the British aristocratic food chain by being critical of the royal household, but Diana's story has changed that. Speaking at Althorp, his family's estate, Spencer said, "We're sitting in a house here, surrounded by portraits of my ancestors, all of whom served the crown very loyally. And there was probably a thought when Diana was plucked to become a royal bride that she would fit into the mold of the past, and she didn't.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
