Swan Song: Diana, my sister, by Charles Spencer (384pp, Penguin Michael Joseph, £28.00)
There is an interesting little episode in Swan Song, Charles Spencer’s book about his sister, Princess Diana, and it took place before her funeral. He writes: “I felt the need to salute Diana, out of love and respect. I crossed myself – a gesture I had never made before, but it struck me, at that moment, as a suitable symbol of deference to my sister.” It was an unusual thing for an Anglican like Spencer to do, but it seems that at times of crisis, the instinctive response of a Christian is to invoke the Cross; the Catholic thing to do is to invoke it physically.
