Four copies of Earl Spencer’s forthcoming memoir about his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, have been stolen from a truck in the Netherlands just days before the book’s international release, according to British media reports.
The Dutch-language copies of Swan Song: Diana, My Sister disappeared while being transported from a printing facility to the warehouse of the book’s Dutch publisher, the BBC reported.
According to a source familiar with the incident, the truck driver had stopped in a car park for a mandatory rest break and was asleep in the cab when the theft occurred. Dutch police are reportedly investigating, although the precise location has not been disclosed.
The Daily Mail, which first reported the incident and is serialising the memoir, said the theft took place in the Dutch countryside earlier this week.
Although the truck was carrying thousands of copies, only four books were taken. It remains unclear whether the thieves specifically targeted the unreleased memoir or took the copies without knowing their significance.
The book, written by Diana’s younger brother Charles Spencer, is due to be released in Britain and internationally on September 22. It offers his personal account of their childhood, Diana’s marriage and the period surrounding her death.
Spencer said he decided to write the memoir after receiving repeated requests for interviews and wanting to place his own memories of his sister on record ahead of the 30th anniversary of her death.
“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,” Spencer said when announcing the memoir. “I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.”
Diana died aged 36 following a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. Her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, were 15 and 12 respectively at the time.
In his widely remembered address at Diana’s funeral in Westminster Abbey, Spencer described his sister as the “very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty.”
He also criticised the intense media attention she endured, describing Diana as the “most hunted person of the modern age,” and pledged that her family would help protect her sons from experiencing similar treatment.