To be annoyed at Prince Harry's memoir title SPARE

[benisright]

I have zero interest in this couple who seem to enjoy making a living on moaning about how they are poorly treated in Britain. Just saw the headline news and the cover of Harry's memoir with his face and one single word SPARE.

Get a life for goodness sake. I'm about his age and never once thought of him as a spare. He kinda invented his own tale.

I'm loving the photoshopped ..... I can't even think what to call it, (haze? nebula? dandelion fluff?) on top of his head.

The title is hilarious. Born into unimaginable privilege and yet he still chooses to present himself as one of life's great victims. How about Spare: The Trials and Tribulations of the Duke of Whinger as an alternative title?

The release date and the pricing is interesting. Most publishers would put out a celebrity biography in time for the Christmas market, but this suggests it will only make bestseller lists if there's no competition. The price means they're hoping to recoup the advance even when the book is heavily discounted. It also means that, after an initial flurry of interest, they are expecting sales of the book to drop off a cliff pretty quickly.

YANBU.

He is playing into the hands of the Americans who buy the nonsense National Enquirer rubbish about the RF, including the crass phrase ‘An heir and a spare’. Shame on him to have so much public self pity when he leads such an immensely privileged life.

I just want to live my life in private, away from the glare of the public, so I am going to publish a heavily marketed book a about my deepest feelings about my toxic upbringing and how that has affected me throughout my life, in 16 languages.

Same.

His other was the exact same, constantly moaning about how badly she was treated while simultaneously courting the press and rejoicing in destroying her children’s family. Harry is a massive chip off the old block and he’s found a wife who is happy to enable his victim behaviour

Booohooo chuck me a couple of million and ill be a spare too 😂

^This

@Trainfromredhill

a wise person once told my dad ‘your upbringing can explain a lot but excuse very little’.

Wise words indeed.

It made me laugh when I heard it! It’s fairly accurate in all fairness.

How dare he tell his own story

Telling your own story is a two-part process - there is the telling your own story part and then the consequences part. You have to be prepared for the latter if you are to engage with the former.

The title is very revealing I think, even if it was done with humour. The victimhood narrative is getting very tiring and doing them no favours at this point. They live in immense wealth and privilege, I struggle to have any sympathy.

He has experienced terrible loss as a child but seems to be trying to make a career out of that which is undignified at this point.

If you’re not interested then just ignore it. I’m not interested in those Richard Osman books but I don’t start threads about them online to specifically seek out opinions on them and get myself all worked up about how I think ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ is a twee and try hard title. I just don’t buy the books. It’s worked pretty well for me so far.

Not sure why so many people are annoyed unless you're a member of the Royal Family. The title is fine his life his choice. I'll be buying a copy.

It's a brilliant title - being able to use one word (one syllable even) that's both a noun and an adjective, has multiple relevant connotations, is not already used for a well known book, and is already strongly associated with the author in people's minds? That has to be some kind of marketing holy grail.

I'm not that interested in Prince Harry's personal story but if he's going to talk about the history and dynamics of being born into the royal family and being unsuited to it but unable to get out and do anything else, and the impact of that on MH, then why not? It's been a taboo subject and it shouldn't be, and like it or not it's part of the whole ethical and practical discussion over whether the UK should continue to be a monarchy at all.

I was surprised to see his author credit as "Prince Harry", none of this Windsor or Mountbatten-Windsor or Wales stuff. May be a play for the non-UK, non-Commonwealth market. The price is overinflated, of course - it's $36 in the US, which is noteably higher than the UK price, and an an eyewatering $50 for the audiobook - but I think it's pretty normal for prices to reduce and settle closer to publication time.

It’s embarrassing. He paints himself as such a victim. I can’t believe many people will buy the book.

Do you always make threads about things you have ‘zero interest’ in?

I have a feeling that if you hadn’t name changed for this thread, your posting history would reveal quite the obsession with this couple. 🤭

but if he's going to talk about the history and dynamics of being born into the royal family and being unsuited to it but unable to get out and do anything else, and the impact of that on MH, then why not? It's been a taboo subject

Which part is taboo? 😀

I think they should have tried to have three kids so he had a proper sibling and not be stuck with that title. I'd imagine it having a profound effect on someone.

I'm glad his brother had three kids, it spares the younger two this awful description.

I think at that point Charles and Diana were barely speaking let alone shagging

I'm so sick of him living in his bubble of navel-gazing, self pitying nonsense. Literally, millions of people grow up in real hardship, real poverty, losing parents young, abuse, no access to education or healthcare. The list goes on and on and on. They didn't choose their incredibly difficult lives, either. At least Harry's <cough> incredibly difficult life <cough> was immeasurably more comfortable and secure and, you know, non life threatening than most.

Even his much lauded intense love of the military, the 'only place he felt truly at home' just highlighted how incredibly entitled and selfish he was. All the time he was in Afghanistan, supposedly risking life & limb and being a proper, little soldier - he had a contingent of special forces bodyguards and a waiting helicopter to whisk him to safety at the first sniff of trouble. He blithely put everyone else around him in danger, just by being there.

He had to call it something & frankly, he isn't even the spare anymore & has lost status as a result.

Him having once been the spare is the only thing he appears to have left to sell & the man wants money.

What did you expect from a man who now makes a living trying to bitch & do 'exposes' about a family he is increasingly isolated from by his own actions?

Soon to be available from ever charity shop for 50p.

Great title. It works for all the reasons teddeh gave. Just damned good marketing.

I'm just surprised at the picture, if that is the real cover that is.
There are so many other pictures of him that show his loving/ fun side and he chose that one!?

I recently read 'Traitor King' about the Abdication of the Duke of Windsor. Really interesting book and the parallels to the current situation with the Sussexes are really interesting.

They seemingly left for a private life but then started doing quasi royal tours, wrote books, gave interviews - presented them as global humanitarians. The Duke of Windsor actually thought he was going to achieve world peace by averting the Second World War.

Because it sets the tone for what the book will be: a giant whinge fest.

TBH I’m amazed people aren’t more angry at Harry after he set in a Beverley Hills mansion in his designer suit, a millionaire in his own right, and had the nerve to moan how his father ‘cut him off financially’. I mean FFS, he implies he’s just like ‘us’ and he probably thought that would garner sympathy, but he is so unbelievably far removed from real life and the real world it’s fucking offensive.