Charles Spencer's book Diana Swan Song etc etc . Thread the second.

A bit off-topic, but I notice that the review mentions the memoir of Alathea Fitzalan Howard, The Windsor Diaries, My Childhood with the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. This is a fascinating read. I highly recommend it.

I would love to know when he started writing this. Before or after his own memoir and its success. Given it came out in 2024 and he said he had a breakdown requiring residential care after his own book that doesn’t seem like a long time to write it.

Also would be interesting to know if it was always intended to come out now.

Robert Fellowes died 2 years ago.

It may have been started before he died, but I suspect it was never going to be published while he was still alive.

Fellowes was in a unique position. He was part of the Spencer family, and he was involved in much of the organisation of Diana's funeral (as well as other Royal Household discussions) as a private secretary to the Queen.

He would have been able to confirm or deny many of the statements in the book.

ETA I feel a great deal of sympathy for Jane Fellowes (as well as her sister). Charles S says his sisters were hurt when he told them about the book. He doesn't strike me as someone who would pick up on subtle signs of others' upset, so they may have been quite distressed.

Surprised there were no comments on Diana’s affairs with married men

I'm not

Why ? Because he adored her? He also criticised her

He doesn’t seem to have criticised her particularly after she was married in the book if I understand correctly. He seems to have then pointed her as a victim. Probably so he could continue with his pantomime villain port of Charles

He revealed to all that she was a married mother-of-two when she assaulted her step-mother by pushing her down the stairs.

i do wonder if he realised that most people assumed that had happened when Diana was a child.

I can’t imagine that the biggest revelation about his sister personally was meant to be that one.

No I agree. I wonder if he forgot that revealing her age when she pushed Raine meant revealing that she did it when she was married with children?

I didn’t think it was made up- why would he do that?

@LambriniBobInIsleworthISeesYaThere are photos of Nelson Mandela at Althorp and he is walking across a bridge

It would be very odd if he meant to announce to the world that she was a fully grown adult at the time.

Popularity and childhood bedrooms are irrelevant to primogeniture.

It's odd as surely the Spencer children already had their rooms before Raine moved in?

Two of her children were adults & I think the younger two remained with their father.

I just finished it in a couple of days. CS doesn't dwell on the issue of possible parental disappointment in Diana's sex, but I'm assuming from the circumstances and from other things that I have read that surely they wanted Diana to be a boy. However, it doesn't appear from anything in the book that her parents loved her any less because she was a girl. By all accounts, Johnny Spencer was a doting and involved father, and he and Diana had a particularly close relationship.

From what I have read in other accounts, it appears that Diana's unhappy childhood stemmed primarily from her parents' divorce, not from being treated differently because she was a girl. However, I can certainly understand that a system (agnatic primogeniture) which inherently values males over females could certainly make a girl think that she was perhaps surplus to requirements. I cannot imagine growing up or raising children in such an environment.