Four copies of Earl Spencer's Diana memoir stolen in Netherlands

Four copies of a highly anticipated memoir about Princess Diana by her brother, Earl Charles Spencer, were stolen from a delivery lorry in the Netherlands, prompting a police investigation just days before the book's planned global release. The theft occurred earlier this week when the lorry, transporting thousands of copies from a Central European printing plant to a distribution warehouse, was broken into overnight at a layby in the Dutch countryside. Dutch authorities are investigating the incident. The stolen books are copies of "Swan Song Diana, My Sister," described as a deeply personal account of Spencer's relationship with his elder sister and her troubled marriage to the then Prince of Wales. The memoir also provides insight into the week following Diana's fatal car accident in August 1997. Publisher Penguin Michael Joseph confirmed the theft and stated the book is still scheduled for worldwide release on September 22, with exclusive serialisation in the Daily Mail. Earl Spencer, 62, has said he wrote the memoir to tell the truth about Diana from his perspective and counter what he describes as accepted untruths, ahead of the 30th anniversary of her death.