Nearly three decades after his unforgettable eulogy at Westminster Abbey, Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, has published Swan Song: Diana, My Sister — a memoir that has reignited one of the most bitter family feuds in Britain.
The 62-year-old aristocrat, whose family seat Althorp has housed the Spencers for more than 500 years, claims in the book that King Charles, then Prince of Wales, reacted to Diana's 1997 death sounding "giddily elated — like a lottery winner". He also describes a furious phone row over the plan for Princes William and Harry, then 15 and 12, to walk behind their mother's coffin — a plan Spencer opposed. During the call, he says, Charles barked that the Spencers had "no bloody sense of duty" and hissed: "We'll forget her soon enough." Spencer says he hung up.
The palace did not deny the account outright, with a statement suggesting grief can "cloud reason" and "colour memory". Spencer told the BBC the words were exactly as he recalled, adding: "It is not every day you wake up to find you've been gaslit by the King." He frames the book as his final word ahead of the 30th anniversary of Diana's death next year.
For travellers with an interest in royal history, the story shines a fresh light on Althorp, the Spencer family's grand Northamptonshire estate where Diana grew up and where she was buried on an island in the grounds. The house and its exhibition about her life have long drawn visitors, and the renewed attention comes as royal-related tourism across England — from Kensington Palace to Sandringham — remains big business.
The memoir also lands at a crowded moment: Harry's 2023 book Spare set the template for candid royal reckonings, and Charles faces simultaneous pressure from his brother Andrew's scandals and the Sussexes' return to British headlines. UK commentators are split on the damage it may do the King, with the Daily Mail calling it "an act of revenge served so cold it comes with a layer of permafrost" — though veteran royal reporter Richard Kay noted Spencer's account matches what he heard by phone in the week after Diana's death.
Who is this for? Anyone fascinated by the royals, planning a stay in the English countryside, or considering Althorp on a Northamptonshire itinerary. The book itself is the story, but the place — and the centuries-old dynasty behind it — is what you can actually visit.
