Diana's letters auctioned

Eight letters Princess Diana wrote to the late fashion editor Liz Tilberis will be sold at auction later this week. The letters are unusually warm, said James Cyr, whose Cyr Auction Gallery will offer the correspondence this week as part of a 600-lot sale. "Diana was a fairly prolific letter writer and she wrote lots of cordial little notes, thanking people for their interest in the Royal Family. But these letters were personal," said Cyr.

Some 200 to 300 people are expected to attend the auction and phone bidders are lining up from New York, Europe and Kansas. The auctioneer could not confirm a report that one of the phone bidders was from the family of Diana's companion, Dodi Al Fayed, who died in the 1997 Paris car crash that also claimed her life.

Liz Tilberis, was editor of British Vogue and New York Harper's Bazaar. She died in 1999 and was well-known for her friendship with Diana. Some 300 items in the auction are from Tilberis' estate, and they include numerous items from the fashion editor's other celebrity pals. Among them: A collection of Versace china, called "The Voyage of Marco Polo;" four Versace tops labelled, in French, "For the editor of British Vogue," a sketch of Tilberis by designer Karl Lagerfeld, as well as paintings, designer clothes, and pewter plates by Calvin Klein.