Discussion about Charles Spencer's book - Swan Song : Diana, my sister , Beautiful, Beloved, Hunted.

[BasiliskStare]

I know there is a thread about the theft of some pre publication editions of this book.
This thread is more by way of a book club discussion about the actual book , the text. Threads will go where they will , but my intention is this is more for me to give my opinion on the book and for others who read it or are interested in the book to join in. I have pre-ordered from Kindle (half price otherwise I may not have 😊) But is only available on September 22nd. So a holding place if you like.

Watching to read comments, I'm not going to buy the book, might get it from the library later.

Thanks @BasiliskStare.

Like @MrsLeonFarrell, I'm not currently planning to buy the book, but will be very interested in your opinion of the whole book rather than just the sensational serialised sections.

Thank you both. I may be somewhat hoping against hope here , but I am hoping it can be a discussion about the actual book. Over 40 years ago I graduated in Eng Lit. It will never leave me during one seminar our professor saying , if you have an argument , root it in the text , otherwise it's just repeating ill thought out opinions flung about in the JCR.

@bluegreygreen @MrsLeonFarrell and others. I think excerpts from the DM , with opinions on those, are allowed here. (& thank you blue for correcting some already. ) I'm really just trying to make it about CS's words as written rather than general arguments re Diana's marriage and all the things we've heard over and over again. Let's see eh? 😊

I won’t be reading the book but would love to read your thoughts on it Basil. So thank you for taking one for the team!

Although suspect most of the book will be a bit of a rehash of old stories.

Thanks again @BasiliskStare.

Bringing my comment from the other thread across here, as you've suggested that you don't mind discussing the excerpts here (as long as the discusson is text-based and doesn't veer off into the general arguments that are happening elsewhere).

The DM are clearly going to serialise the most sensational parts. However, from my perspective, assuming that what they have printed is contained in the book as printed, he has lost considerable credibility on 3 counts:

1 Highly unlikely comment attributed to KC3

2 Father wanted to marry Elizabeth but 'warned off' by Mountbatten - dates don't add up

3 Diana deciding to divorce because Charles 'in love with valet' - they had been living separately for years before the Queen told them to divorce, so how would she even know, assuming this were true? He's clearly just decided to drag up an old story.

I think, rather than this being a tribute to Diana or speaking about Diana in an 'openly positive way' as he claimed in the pre-publication interview, he is using it to score points.

On the Mail website one of the excerpts said Diana met her brother for lunch and she told him she was going to ask for a divorce. He said she couldn’t, she said I must, Charles is in love with his valet!

His valet at the time seems to have been Michael Fawcett - he was not named as the valet in the excerpt.

Years ago I worked in close proximity to a press office and the press officers got to know all sorts of rumours. There was one that a member of the royal family had been walked into having a sexual act with a valet. I always thought it was Andrew and that was why his marriage floundered. Looking up Fawcett now he was referenced in 2003 as having a sexual relationship with Charles, it was referenced in international media, but strenuously denied.

interesting development.

KC3 has always had a symbiotic relationship with Fawcett. Will be interesting to see if that is further reference in the book.

I agree that DM will publish the most headline grabbing bits, but as a pp has put, when the dates don't even add up it casts doubt on the whole thing.

I would be interested in childhood memories, growing up at Park House.

So far the excerpts have not impressed me. I doubt that any of them are true, some may be distortions but they do not line up at all with contemporary records.

The valet rumour is the least credible to me, as I said on another thread. Rumours that a public figure is secretly gay is almost routine in biographies these days. Actors, royals, politicians, whoever you are the topic is so predictable it's almost a biographical trope. Of course some are going to be accurate but the vast majority are not. I see no reason that Charles is one of the true ones, and frankly even if it is true, so what.

Charles S is being slightly homophobic in my book in the way he is wheeling this rumour out as if it discredits Charles. It's the 21st century, character not sexual orientation is what matters.

Maybe the book will provide more balance, the excerpts as they stand cause me to take a dim view of Charles S.

I am interested in CS childhood recollections and I hope is able to present them in a compassionate, trauma-informed way given he has been through his own therapeutic healing recently so should be able to reflect on their highly emotionally deficient (if not abusive) childhood and how this shaped the complex, difficult and dysfunctional characters they both became. I think it’s interesting that so far it’s all anti Charles - are we expecting a saintly portrayal of Diana - or will he be more balanced and insightful?

I won’t be a buyer so it will only be the bits I see here and maybe elsewhere I could discuss.

As you say Bluey, it does (from the bits released) seem to be a point scoring exercise rather than a loving tribute/history piece.

I had thought that his books up to now had merit and have been researched - if not deeply researched then well enough.

I think it a little disappointing that it doesn’t seem to be the case here.

It seems like a wonderful opportunity to tell the story of her life has maybe been missed and it may well be swallowed up by the more salacious comments.

I hope I’m wrong and he does manage to convey the story of her life in a fair and careful fashion. Perhaps enlighten us to how she became the woman she was - faults and all. I want it to provide the unique inside he had.

I’m just not seeing it yet.

If Charles was more attracted to a male employee it would be relevant to Diana’s obvious unhappiness in that relationship. She might be able to compete with another woman, but not another man. She thought she was getting Prince Charming. He was very far from that.

As above, while the story has been about for a while and may or may not have some truth in it, putting it as a reason for Diana to tell her brother she is divorcing makes no sense.

Diana and Charles R formally separated in December 1992 (announced in the Commons).
The Bashir inteview was 20th November 2025.
The Queen wrote to them both on 20th December 2025 advising them to divorce.

It's thought the final trigger for the Queen to instruct them to divorce was Diana's horrendous behaviour to Tiggy Legge-Bourke at the Wales' staff Christmas party on 14th December, but whether or not that is the case, there is nowhere in the story where Charles S's version makes sense.

Yup. Yup. And yup.

None of it was 2025

What year do you mean? 1995?

I have no intention of reading the book.

But I would love to know where Spencer got hold of the photo on the front cover, is it photoshopped to make her look older for some reason ?

I don’t think many people would recognise it as Diana if it was shown to them out of context. Such an odd picture to choose to represent probably the most photographed and recognisable woman of the 20 th Century.

Apologies - dates here clearly intended to be 1995!

I thought that viques.

So many photographs of her were so vibrant.

This one is not that and was, for me, staid and somehow flat.

An interesting, if not odd, choice.

Hi Following for the commentary and shared/sharing snippets.

I won’t be buying the book.

I’d be interested in learning more about the relationships between the Spencer siblings - I’ve seen quotes from some of the letters from Charles to Diana in which he comes across as pretty awful, and seems when she wanted a house at Althorp he said yes and then changed his mind because he wanted an employee to have it, and offered her somewhere miles away instead. And that’s why they fell out. But didn’t she also fall out with her sisters?

Thanks @BasiliskStare , definitely won’t be buying the book, following here and the DM serialisation, the DM comment section is quite funny though.

@bluegreygreen thank you for bringing that post across - I didn't like to do it myself. However , I think the DM excerpts are relevant to this thread , with contemporaneous publications , reports or indeed facts which shed light on CS's own words and credibility. & thus far we only have the DM snippets.

As with others , I am hoping for some more well written non headlining grabbing stories about their childhood or the parts which aren't D vs KC old gossip. As @TypingTootOnMyCommute alludes to it will be interesting to see if this is a genuine insight into Diana or a wasted opportunity from someone - who did know her.

But those who read pre publication excerpts - please do comment.

Edited for clarity of my point.

Yes, she did. Also, at the time of her death, she wasn't speaking to her mother.

And Fergie as well I think, who had been one of her pals for years?