IF you’re thinking Swan Song is a book on Diana you’ll be disappointed because it’s a classic tale of an author displaying main character energy.
Finishing ‘s account of his sister’s life leaves you’re crying out for more. Not for more of his meandering prose but more about the life of the former Princess of Wales.
Because just like Harry’s similar hatchet-job , Spencer’s attempt is billed as an inside tell-all account but is instead written to settle the author’s personal grudges by deliberately attempting to embarrass the Royals with salacious and selected stories.
Spencer confessed in his BBC interview the book is also his own ‘swan song’ and he is right; because it’s all about him.
There are hundreds of royal books about over the years and you would have hoped her own brother could usurp them all.
Instead, it’s a quick romp through Spencer family history and , sprinkled with disputed attacks against Charles, which have all been heavily trailed before its release.
It also veers into the bizarre, with accounts of one of Charles’s ‘retinue’ at Diana’s burial trying to hide while saying, ‘Please ignore me – I am a tree,’ and an overly-described tale of a ‘shaggy’ man with a ‘generous belly’ stopping him in the street to say, ‘Top speech,’ following his eulogy at Di’s funeral.
Just like Spare the hero of the book – in this case – is painted as a caring rebel struggling against a Royal Family incapable of expressing love.
While , the story’s villain, is painted as a gruff, aged, heartless relic who not only claims he never loved Diana but, heaven forbid, once asked her to turn down her loud music.
Naturally, there are pages and pages of criticism of the media, even though Charles Spencer also openly states in his book the many times he had given interviews about Diana to the press and how he colluded with author Andrew Morton and Daily Mail reporter Richard Kay.
These contradictions and one-sided accounts are very much like Harry’s Spare but at least the was lucky enough to employ an excellent ghostwriter to create a gripping read.
Spencer prides himself on being a historian or note and author of seven non-fiction books but his recollections were disputed by before it was even published.
Now, over what he says are “demonstrable lies” about him in the book.
Dare I say it, Swan Song feels rushed and reads like it was hastily crafted and incomplete.
Running just 367 pages Spencer’s book falls far short of being a compelling read and adds little to the Diana books already on your shelf.
At an eye-watering £28 (which is 8p a page) you reach the end feeling rather short-changed.
And we still don’t have an answer to The Sun’s front page last week, ‘Why is he doing this to the King now?’
One star out of five.
