Bookclub for Spare

[BornBlonde]

I know there are loads of threads, but thought it may be useful to set up a bookclub thread ahead of the release date fir those interested. I've ordered the audiobook as struggling to find time to read at the moment but love I can listen to an Audiobook while cooking etc

This is baaaaaadddd - what dross

CRINGE

Poor Charlotte, that's just so unfair of him to pull her in, so much for caring about people's mental health..arse

Indeed.

But if it ever came to a showdown between the two of them, my money would be on Charlotte.

I’m mid way through and have enjoyed it so far . He comes across fairly well and although some of the things mentioned previously re the inconsistencies around X Box and QM death should have been fact checked these sort of inconsistencies crop up in nearly every autobiography I’ve read . A lot of the quotes that have been all over the media have been taken out of context but so many people won’t bother to read the book now he will be judged as always on the press reports and not the actual content of the book . I think if you are his age and have parents who have divorced there’s a lot of stuff to relate to regardless of his wealth and status .

I'm 30% in on kindle and enjoying it so far. Much less sensational and scandalous in context (and not in translation) and I've found much of it so far very touching.

I'm enjoying it so far. His preoccupation with the media is unhealthy IMO (found the recent interview with Tom Bradby rather worrying from that POV), I sympathise with his family who probably felt they were doing the right thing in advising him not to make an enemy of the press. But it's very understandable too.

I think he comes across well in what I've read so far but I'm only a few chapters in. The hunting stuff is a bit 'eek' but a big part of growing up royal obviously. Charles comes across as essentially very kind and well meaning which is what I've always felt, and probably a bit of a coward in that he likes to avoid things rather than confront them directly. Just reading between the lines, that's my impression. I think he gives Charles and William quite a fair portrayal, they seem flawed and human rather than villainous.

I found you!!

Great discussion so far, so measured.

So glad to see my instincts about translation and context have been confirmed by those actually reading.

Have to work but will join you tomorrow with thoughts.

It doesn't say 'make him horny', that was the translation from Spanish.

Yes - he uses that expression quite far into the book - I think he knows that she has died but if he says it aloud it means that he has to accept she is not coming back. I'm not near the end yet so not sure if this changes

Just started!

Harry didn’t find it funny giving the rumours about James Hewitt going around at the time. He also confirmed that Charles never had a heart-to-heart with him about his paternity. He states if he had any thoughts on the matter, he had kept them to himself.

he knew Hewitt was not his father as he explains how they met him and they were not even babies. - Hewitt was their riding instructor. I got the impression he would have liked his dad to talk about it with him as it was so public and even now the media won't let it go.

I agree with your comments except . The media.
maybe he could just about cope with it all when he was single but couldn't stand by once he was married with children as it wasn't just about him.

Could someone please post the correct version of the 'foremost Willy' and the 'riding in Lesotho with capes flying behind us' passage??

Pretty please? 🙏

@Aspiringmatriarch disgusting man

Had any one got to the bit about his kill number, he's been on a chat show saying it's been taken out of context by the media.

Is this the live The Late Show interview?

Yes. He talks about how he would prefer not to have killed that number of people but that he’d also prefer to live in a world with no Taliban and no wars. For him he said he felt it important to not shy away from the number.
The reference to chess pieces was that he had been trained as a soldier to not think of people as people, as you can’t kill and cause harm if you do, and that is what soldiers have to do. He had been trained to ‘other-ize‘ them and be detached. He said he recognises that detachment like this is problematic but also unavoidable as a soldier.

All fair enough really, but he could have known the number in his head and not shared it in the book I think. He talks about the importance of accountability in the army and that not shying away from the number is part of that. Again fair enough, but you can just keep the number in your head, maybe share with other soldiers or those close to you. Sharing with the world, I’m not sure that’s necessary and could be very problematic. I think it’s something he struggles with, but I’m not convinced sharing the number with us will help him. I’ve heard ex soldiers say some odd things though, I think it’s a job that can mess the most stable person up and obviously Harry went into the army having come from another odd situation, being a royal, seemingly having unresolved trauma and not being in the best place mentally.

Thank you @DinnerInItaly , I just wondered if he was backtracking/gaslighting again.

@Ticketyboots yes that's the one

Has anyone that was sympathetic to Harry changed their mind after reading the book?

I only ask because my mum has always championed him/them (H and M) and couldn't wait to read the book. I asked her last night what she thought of it and she said "Oh, I don't know. It's all rather odd." Then she changed the subject.

It's a horrible passage for sure. I think it's intended with some affection but doesn't come off well.

So for anyone question why Harry believed that Diana wasn’t dead up until his 20s, he asked to see the files about her death. There were photos of the dead driver, Dodi and the bodyguard (who survived but had visible and horrific injuries). But Diana didn’t have any visible injuries, she was just slumped in her seat (I remember reading an article where someone tried to justify publishing images of Diana in the car and they said she didn’t look like she was dead, she looked like she was asleep). So I think that fed into his already held belief (and hope) that the car accident wasn’t fatal for her and she used the crash as an escape strategy.

I've only just started it and so far it seems poorly written.

In the first few pages it seems to say that he was waiting for Charles and Will at Frogmore, after Philips funeral, just "a few hours" after receiving the phone call (whilst in the US) from the the Queen to say he had died?

Am I misreading that?

Did I hear this correctly (listening via audio so not always catching words properly. It’s in chapter 54.

”every day upon waking at 5am we were forced to down a huge bottle of water. The bottle was army issued, black plastic, a left over from the (Boer?) war. Any liquid inside tasted of first generation plastic”

If so, Boer war ended in 1902, plastic was invented in 1907. Seems an odd thing to say, unless I AM mishearing it.

It's a bit more complicated than that for me. I've always defended Meghan because I think most of the horrible stuff has been directed at her, very unfairly, and while she's obviously nor perfect I think she's a good person with good intentions. Harry I've always felt for, like a lot of people, as he's clearly had a tough time in the past and struggled with it a lot. My opinion of him overall has been that he's definitely made some judgement errors and has been lacking in the diplomacy department but I put a lot of that down to his difficult upbringing, his understandable hatred of the press and sense of betrayal over stories being fed to them by close relatives, and his wanting/needing to defend his own family and provide for them.

I haven't finished the book yet but I did watch the Tom Bradby interview and I think for me that provided a missing puzzle piece for some of his behaviour, namely the effects of his drug use and linked to that, his poor mental health. I'm not saying that to discredit him because I do believe a lot of what he's saying, and I obviously can't diagnose him either, but what came across to me tbh was a lot of paranoia and obsessiveness, and an unwillingness to brook any other perspectives. There was also the very grandiose statement about reconciliation sending a ripple through the world which was just a WTF moment.

Added to that, while I have no problem with him clarifying and talking about unconscious bias WRT the discussions over Archie's possible colouring, I felt it was pretty disingenuous to immediately jump on that question and blame it on the press narrative. I kind of got what he was saying, that we all have unconscious bias, but it was also splitting hairs IMO and I don't know that wondering what a baby will look like has a huge amount to do with unconscious bias. If it was said negatively as in "I hope the baby won't be dark", that's hardly unconscious is it?

I think a lot of these passages from the book are being presented unfairly and I can also see why he wanted to share his story, but I think it's a real shame he didn't write this in a few years when things are less raw. It will be next to impossible for his relationship with his father, brother and others to recover - but he may feel he didn't have much to lose.

So I'm neither fully positive nor negative on Harry but then I wasn't before really.