Diana's 'Honeymoon Letter' expressing early marital bliss to be auctioned

A letter written by Princess Diana during her 1981 honeymoon, expressing joy and optimism about her new marriage, is now up for auction. In the "Honeymoon Letter" to her childhood friend Katherine Hanbury, the then 20-year-old Diana wrote, "It is wonderful to be married – I think I can say that after two months!" She described their honeymoon as "lovely" with "plenty of sun and thankfully a calm sea." The royal couple was staying in Balmoral, Scotland, at the time, which Diana found a welcome escape from London.

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It is wonderful to be married – I think I can say that after two months!

Hanbury, who attended school with Diana between 1973 and 1977, is auctioning a collection of Diana's personal items, including this letter and several photographs. She has kept the items for about 45 years and decided it was time to pass them on. "I'm not getting any younger, and I can't take them with me," Hanbury stated. "I thought it was time to give someone else the chance to enjoy looking at and reading them as much as I have."

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We have had a lovely honeymoon with plenty of sun and thankfully a calm sea… We are in Scotland until the end of October now, and that is a gift for us – I love being outdoors all day and I hate London

Oliver Searle, CEO of the auction house Gorringe's, noted that the collection offers a glimpse into Diana as a young woman searching for love and stability. "What we see in the letter is a kind of optimism that she had found that love and that happiness," Searle said. He added, "Of course, we know now that her marriage was not a fairy tale and that she was still searching for those things at the end of her life. What struck me most was how sad it is that that search ultimately did not succeed for her."

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It is like playing with grown-ups

Hanbury hopes the auctioned items will reveal an unseen side of Diana to the public. "She was truly herself," Hanbury said of the Diana she knew. "She never tried to be anyone else or anything else other than who she really was. I think that's something that's lacking in many members of the royal family these days. But that's how she was. She was Diana.” The collection, which also includes four color photos of Diana at school and a program from a memorial service after her death, is estimated to be worth between 4,600 and 7,000 euros.

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I've kept these letters for about 45 years now. I'm not getting any younger, and I can't take them with me. I thought it was time to give someone else the chance to enjoy looking at and reading them as much as I have.