Charles Spencer Announces Book About Sister Princess Diana: 'Swan Song' Arrives September 2026

Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer and younger brother of Princess Diana, is publishing a book about his late sister. Titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, it is scheduled for release on September 22, 2026, according to Town & Country Town & Country.

The book covers Diana's life as Spencer saw it, beginning with their childhood at Althorp, the Spencer family's ancestral estate in England, and ending with the week of her death in August 1997. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, at age 36.

Spencer said the project grew out of a practical pressure. As the 30th anniversary of Diana's death approached, he received a flood of interview requests and decided the better response was to write his own account rather than keep fielding questions from others. Reuters also reported the news on August 18 Reuters via Yahoo.

In a statement, Spencer drew a direct line between the new book and the eulogy he delivered at Diana's funeral on September 6, 1997, at Westminster Abbey — the London church that has hosted British coronations and state ceremonies for nearly a thousand years. That service was broadcast to a global television audience, and Spencer's speech, delivered before an estimated 2.5 billion viewers worldwide, remains one of the most remembered moments of the mourning period. He said he wants once again to speak on Diana's behalf and to do so "in an openly positive way."

Spencer, 62, is not a first-time author. He has written several works of non-fiction history and memoir, including The Spencers: A Personal History of an English Family and Althorp: The Story of an English House. His most recent memoir, A Very Private School, was released in March 2024 and recounts abuse he says he suffered as a child at Maidwell Hall, a British boarding school Hollywood Reporter.

The timing of Swan Song lands just weeks after the 29th anniversary of Diana's death. Spencer did not indicate in his statement whether the book will address the circumstances of the Paris crash or the years of public scrutiny that followed Diana's separation from then-Prince Charles in 1992 and their divorce in 1996.

What gives the book its weight is the voice behind it. Spencer is the sibling who stood at the abbey lectern and addressed the world on behalf of a family that had lost its most famous member. Nearly three decades later, he is choosing to do it again — this time at book length, and on his own terms.