Rare Diana letters sell for £22,000

A hotel owner today paid £22,000 for a rare collection of private letters and cards sent by Diana, Princess of Wales, to a former housekeeper at her family home.

Michael Rockall, of Ditchingham, near Bungay, Suffolk, said he was keen to buy the collection because he wanted it to stay in England.

Auctioneers at Keys sale rooms in Aylsham, Norfolk, had not expected it to make more than £15,000.

The letters and cards were sent by the Princess to Maud Pendrey, a housekeeper in her seventies who worked at Diana's family home at Althrop, near Northampton.

The letters are on many personal subjects, including one where she writes about her honeymoon with Prince Charles as "a success - and a glorious time to catch up on lost energy and sleep".

In another, she talks about the birth of Prince William, calling herself an "extremely proud and lucky mother".