Nanny set to make a killing with Princess Diana letters

Another intimate of the late Princess of Wales (pictured dancing with John Travolta in 1985) is set to make a killing. Step forward Mary Clarke, her former nanny, who is offering up a selection of letters that passed between her and Diana at a Colchester auction house next Wednesday. While the content is not particularly revelatory, they do offer a fascinating glimpse into the young princess's life.

The four letters, which the auctioneers Reeman Dansie are expecting to fetch £10,000, date from Diana's teenage years. Writing from the Spencer family seat, Althorp, in 1978, the 17-year-old told Clarke: "My love of my life is dancing, things like tap, modern, ballet and jazz. Also I love singing, even though my voice sounds awful, and watching me dance is like watching an elephant, so no-one does!"

Seven years later, Dianaphiles will recall, the Princess won the hearts of the America public when she danced with Travolta at a gala dinner in Washington. That same year, she performed with Wayne Sleep at the Royal Opera House, as a surprise treat for Charles's birthday.

The correspondence continues throughout Diana's courtship and the run-up to her wedding at St Paul's Cathedral in July 1981. "Not long to go now and about time too!" she wrote from Buckingham Palace, two weeks before the big day. Six months into their marriage, she told Clarke: "I adore being married and having someone to devote my time [sic]," but hinted at future clashes, feeling constrained by royal protocol. "I do get annoyed at not being able to do my washing and general ironing!" In the same letter, she described the "total despair" of morning sickness while pregnant with Prince William, whom she referred to as "Baby Wales".

Clarke appears to have co-operated with the auction in publicising the sale. Of the Princess, who was killed in car crash with her lover Dodi Fayed in Paris in 1997, she gushes: "Diana really did love her husband. That was her one ambition in life, to get married, to look after her husband and to have children. Diana was so upset by her parents' divorce, she was determined that she would never divorce herself. When she married Charles I remember writing to her and saying she was marrying the only man in the country from whom she could never be divorced. Sadly, that was not to be."