Releasing on 22nd September 2026
UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL PUBLICATION
Charles Spencer will publish Swan Song: Diana, My Sister which tells the story of his sister Diana’s life from a brother’s perspective, with Penguin Michael Joseph, a division of Penguin Random House. Publisher Daniel Bunyard acquired World All Language rights from Caroline Michel at PFD. Penguin Press will publish in the US, and the book will be published globally around the world and translated into 12 languages. Publication is slated for 22nd September 2026.
In September 1997, Charles Spencer stood in Westminster Abbey before a watching world and shared his grief at losing his beloved sister, Diana, in a eulogy that was judged to be one of the great speeches of the twentieth century. Now, nearly thirty years later, he tells the astonishing story of his life with Diana and the tragic week of her death. Swan Song: Diana, My Sister marks the first time that Earl Spencer has spoken openly and at length about his sister.
Earl Spencer says, ‘With the 30th anniversary of Diana’s tragic death on the skyline, I’ve been inundated yet again with requests for interviews about my sister. 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.’
‘The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral. As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.
‘I hope this book will be of interest to the many who still cherish the memory of Diana when she was alive, and I would be delighted if those too young to remember her in her heyday feel – after reading this – that they ‘get’ who she really was: a one-off, dynamic character, full of love, charisma and self-doubt, who gave life a hell of a go, and left the world a far better place, despite exiting the stage while still so young.
‘This is a book I’ve been invited to write repeatedly, since the actual day of Diana’s funeral. Now is the time for me to finally put it down on the page.’
Daniel Bunyard says, ‘This is a book of historic importance, telling as it does the story of one of the twentieth century’s most iconic and culturally significant figures, but it is also utterly unique in being written by Earl Spencer, from a vantage point of such intimacy. It is extraordinarily moving, beautifully written and remarkably candid, in no small part due to Charles’s rare ability to access great emotional depth without sentimentality, honest observation without rancour, and warmth without gloss. For the first time, but also for all time, readers will find here a fitting tribute to the beloved woman who was Princess Diana.’
Originated in the UK by Penguin Michael Joseph, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister will be published simultaneously in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and Ireland. In the USA and Canada it will be simultaneously published by Penguin Press.
Rights have been sold in an additional 12 languages and will also be published on 22 September in Brazil (Compania das Letras), Catalonia (Rosa dels Vents), Finland (Otava) France (Flammarion), Germany (Penguin Verlag), Italy (Mondadori), Netherlands (Hollands Diep), Norway (Cappelan Damm), Poland (Marginesy), Portugal (Penguin), Spain & Latin America (Plaza y Janes), Sweden (Bonniers) and Quebec (Flammarion Québec).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHARLES SPENCER is an author, historian, public speaker, broadcaster and journalist. He is also the 9th Earl Spencer. Spencer is the author of nine books including four Sunday Times bestsellers – The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream, Blenheim: Battle for Europe (shortlisted for History Book of the Year, National Book Awards), Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I and To Catch a King: Charles II’ s Great Escape. His first volume of memoirs isthe critically acclaimed no. 1 Sunday Times bestseller, A Very Private School.
A globally in demand keynote speaker, he worked for NBC News as an on-air correspondent from 1986 to 1995. He has presented for the History Channel, was a co-host of the hit Rabbit Hole Detectives podcast, and has written for many newspapers and magazines. He is a columnist for the Financial Times. Spencer was educated at Eton College, and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he obtained his MA in Modern History. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Beautiful. Beloved. Hunted. The extraordinary life and death of Diana, as told by her brother, Charles
‘When asked, ‘What was it like, growing up with Diana?’, my first thought is always, But I don’t know what it was like not to grow up with her…’
In September 1997, Charles Spencer stood in Westminster Abbey before a watching world and shared his grief at losing his beloved sister, Diana. Now, nearly thirty years later, he tells the astonishing story of his life with Diana and the tragic week of her death.
In childhood, Charles and Diana, the youngest Spencers, were inseparable – secretly calling one another Duch and Carlos. As each other’s closest confidantes, they roamed the family estate, endured extremely challenging boarding schools, survived terrifying nannies and helped each other through the agony of their parents’ divorce.
Yet everything changed when Diana married the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, and overnight became a global icon. Charles saw his older sister serve the world’s marginalized and relish being mother to her treasured sons.
But, pursued by a barbaric press as her royal marriage crumbled, she was left desperately alone. Charles always tried to be there for Diana – until that black night in August, 1997.
In Swan Song, Charles Spencer provides the most intimate, loving and honest portrait yet of his sister.
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