Earl Spencer's bombshell new book stolen from lorry
Thieves made off with four copies of the book after smashing into a lorry parked in the Netherlands
Copies of Earl Spencer's bombshell upcoming memoir have been stolen from the back of a lorry in the Netherlands.
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Thieves made off with four copies of the book - which details the Earl's memories of his sister Princess Diana - as the driver of the lorry slept.
The truck was carrying thousands of copies when it was smashed into while parked overnight in a lay-by on Monday, the Daily Mail reported.
The driver discovered the break-in at 8am the following day and reported the thefts to Penguin Random House in London at 3.30pm.
It was en route from a printing plant in central Europe to a warehouse in the Netherlands, ahead of the book's distribution to Dutch shops.
The theft on Monday night comes days before the highly anticipated book's publication in the UK next Tuesday.
Spencer has said the book will aim to “to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral”.
It will mark the first time that the Earl, 62, has spoken at length about his sister, who died in Paris in a car crash in 1997 aged 36.
Her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul were also killed in the accident.
It is expected to cover the momentous days between the crash and Diana's funeral at Westminster Abbey which was watched by an audience of billions.
The publisher said it contains “many revelations” about Diana’s life, including her “deeply unhappy” marriage to King Charles.
With the 30th anniversary of Diana's death approaching, the Earl said he had been “inundated for requests for interviews”.
He said: “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.”