Spare - anyone reading it and want to discuss

overall it’s so clear Harry just wants the love and approval of his father and brother and they withhold it time and again.

I do have sympathy for him in lots of ways but I don’t know about this bit. I think they did show him love in their own way but he’s in a place where he just sees rejection and fault. They’re speaking different languages. It’s understandable but one sided, as we’d expect with any autobiography I suppose. As I read, I keep feeling sorry for him as a young boy, a teenager, a young man… but he’s not now.

I wonder as a father, once his children are older and you can’t solve all their problems, and despite best efforts they will disagree with you - whether he’ll be able to have compassion in reverse.

And yes, William comes across as cold and flawed too, but I’m sure he has his own considerable demons, now added to by this scenario.

My friend lent her copy to me she's finished it - it's utter tosh I've only read a bit of it he's just so entitled and fake

Interesting comments on the written style. I listen les to the audiobook and found it easy going.

Harry reads it himself and it felt like being in conversation with him (or being his therapist!)

the odd bit - like the poem reference seemed off. He’s so upfront about finding school boring and not reading much. I agree that was the ghost writer having fun.

but mostly it flowed well. So worth listening if reading is too much like hard work.

now you’re there, there’s more in the Meghan chapters I found surprising than the earlier stuff. Especially, just after the news of their relationship broke, that he tells her she’s fine to try to go food shopping on Ken high st alone. Of course she gets spotted and chased by paps.

given all his experience of that I cannot believe he didn’t know better (I know posters on other threads believe it was deliberate attention seeking by her. Don’t know about that. But it does seem stupid (not naive as he must have known at that point every exit of KP would be staked out hoping to see her / them).

But then, a bit later, someone points out he can hire his own lawyer and it blows his mind. Fascinating on how institutionalised the life is. OF COURSE he could hire his own lawyer (or protection for M once their relationship went public) but I can well believe he was so used to having everything done for him and being told what to do (and that he MUST do as he was told) that he really did not realise.

TBH I've only read the first chapter or so because the manner of writing is excruciating. It's so floral and trying too hard IMO. If the ghostwriter is writing in Harry's style then it's not obvious as Harry doesn't speak like that as far as a I've seen?

Also… Andrew is his uncle, they may not have spent much time together for anecdotes like the teddy bear one. I see my uncle about once a year, I think.

i assume he doesn’t talk about Andrew because:

not his story to tell

Unlike William's penis and Charles' teddy bear? How did revealing those details illustrate his argument that he was ignored or manipulated?

@OneFrenchEgg my read of the No opinion on Prince Andrew is:

the book is about where he has had difficulties with the family / institution.

i assume he doesn’t talk about Andrew because:

• not his story to tell
• respect for Beatrice and Eugenie especially E whom he’s close to

im sure he does and Meghan certainly does have opinions about him.

but in that sense although he’s shared some very personal conversations, the ones he’s shared illustrate his central argument that he feels used / ignored / manipulated by his closest family and the institution.

and he has been restrained as he has not told lots of other juicy scandalous things he clearly knows about other members of the RF.

Not so well documented that I can find anything about it after a Google search. But I'm sure you're right 🙄

He talks often about hunting, yes.

@GreekDogRescue Indeed it doesn’t. Nor the well documented rumour that he bullied a boy in his year at Eton so badly that he had to leave the school and undergo years of therapy…..

Does the tome address Harold’s predilection for trophy and big game hunting, his well documented abuse of polo ponies (riding a 10 year old mare called Drizzle to death plus injuries from spurs)? Does it address his alleged abuse of sex workers?

The fox! What was that all about. I have been enjoying the box but I have definitely had eyeroll laughing moments for example the fox.
The whole go shopping that is me done for 6 months. I just thought wouldn't it be nice to get a whole new wardrobe every 6 months! No idea of how privileged he is.

I’ve just finished Gyles Brandreth’s biography of the Queen. Would recommend it; it’s chatty but well written with (I sense) some very real insight into how HMQ and Prince Philip might have felt about things. (He was friendly with the Duke of E and had clearly spent a lot of time talking to the family.)

twitter.com/jimmykimmellive/status/1615176712471601153?s=46&t=tX4Eh7YSmY67Z5sqMxF_xg

This is naughty. And not for those of an easily offended disposition, nor those who prefer to avoid references in ooor taste to Diana, Princess of Wales. But - with those caveats - it is very, very funny….