Spare - anyone reading it and want to discuss

Regarding his army career and the comments how he should have stayed in it. As an officer and him being a member of the royal family then he would have had to be promoted. It is no secret he is not very bright and would not have been up to promotion to the rank up from the one he was when he left. The royal family get into schools, universities and jobs beyond their capabilities but that can be covered up. In the services you can take it from me , it can’t be. Staying I was not an option no matter how that fact is covered up.

It’s not well written. How many times does he say his memory isn’t good and I’m not even halfway through! Then why write a book?

I've read it. Having lived with drug-addled and narcissistic family, Iit echoes so, so true to those traits and it's all just a pile of shite that can't be believed. When so, so many details are so muddled/proved to be lies, it's laughable to believe anything in there and quite sad that so many people who haven't had to live a life with family like that are very lucky to have such a naieve view of such an innaccurate work of fiction.

I just think that if those rooms were always used as the nursery then that’s all it would have been, despite another gazillion bedrooms. I expect if his cousins were there on other occasions and W&H weren’t, they’d have been bunged in the nursery too.

I have finished the book but will be careful to not spoil.

Yes! I keep seeing the headlines and thinking "did we read the same book".

The extent of his vulnerability has really moved me. Not surprising if you think of it; dysfunctional royal family, messy and public divorce, mother's bulimia, mothers death, abandoned at boarding school, dad remarries, family deception, fear of life, racisim, impact of war etc. Each one of these is enough to sink many. But ALL of them?

I've just started it on my kindle free sample.
So far though I've found it interesting and will probably buy it. I've not got to anything majorly controversial yet.

I think it shows how awful it is living in a gilded cage. It isn't just family disagreements, rival comms and the press, it is the relentless public interest and scrutiny. When Diana died I hated the way some of the press and the public did the whole "come out and show us your grief" thing.
I think it must be very hard to grow up sane in that environment and that comes through in the book.
i agree that he was happiest in the army and I found those chapters fascinating.

I've said this on another thread but it's like the Vardy v. Rooney case but if Vardy had been Rooney's mum or sister. Most people (I think) were on Rooney's side in that case; as far as I'm concerned the fact pattern here is the same.

I'm listening to it on Audible, but am now wishing I'd bought it. His reading is brilliant but I'd be getting through it a lot faster if I'd bought a paper copy.

What is super clear is how few people commenting on other threads have actually read it. Because the book isn't remotely how it has been presented in the papers.

Not got very far. Am shocked at the lack of mental health care after Diana died. Back to school two weeks later and nobody , staff, friends or family spoke to him about it.

I actually think Camilla’s suggestion for a job might have worked well (no idea if it was in HMQ’s gift, though) - a long way away but still serving the RF/country!

I enjoyed it. I found the army stuff really interesting and he clearly has seen and done a lot.

His love of Africa and the outdoors in general seemed sincere and heartfelt.

Some bits about William are a bit petty but he just feels very sad about everything.

The press are the real villains of the book so no wonder they have gone for him. It all really proves his point.

Yeah, true… it might have needed to be a non combat role (pilot training or something).

I do find it mildly baffling that, in a castle of 200 odd rooms, the third in line to the throne had a crappy half bedroom. Yes, “posh kid”, but if you visited your granny and she had three spare rooms and put your brother in the best one with a telly and you in the worst one, when the medium one was much nicer, I can see it grating

I agree, the army would have been good to stay in longer.

I'm about a quarter in, so I am probably yet to get to the more controversial stuff, but so far I think he's just being honest about what it was like to lose his mum at 12 and how the media and coverage around it affected him, and of course the 'spare' thing, my view so far is that he just accepted it, that he knew that William wasn't necessarily the favourite son/grandson, or more important in the family, but he was more important in the 'firm', the hierarchy, to the country because he was a future king. Not because of the person he was, but because he was born first.

I don't see any of the whining I heard about (yet) - just him being truthful about his life and how he experienced events, and how he reacted to them.

At this point I'm feeling strongly that he should have just made a career in the army, it seemed to be the first place he felt he belonged because he was faceless and nameless and didn't stand out - something he struggled with being on the other side of.

Yes! I actually preferred that part of the book. I’m quite surprised he didn’t say more about the wedding (other than the bridesmaid dress and beard arguments) - what it was like in the chapel, maybe, after the descriptions of balmoral etc