Using someones surname to refer to them, Harry and Caroline Flack.

[themessygarden]

So it appears (from the excerpts) in Harry's book, that he discusses his relationship with Caroline Flack.

"Very soon after they papped me and Flack, those photos set off a frenzy. Within hours a mob was camped outside Flack’s parents’ house, and all her friends’ houses, and her grandparents’ house,” Harry recalled in Spare."

I think I saw in a previous post where there was a heated discussion about referring to someone by their surname only. @Serenster gave one of her very rational explanations as to why it might be used and wasn't exactly the insult some people claimed it to be. I see now that her explanation was perfectly correct.

What was the explanation?

I thought it was a phase during high school that people grow out of.

Thanks @themessygarden.😀

I just pointed out that it’s perfectly standard written usage to first introduce someone with their full name e.g. “Caroline Flack”/“Russell Brand” and then refer to them as just “Flack” and “Brand” subsequently. It’s part of most newspaper and the wikipedia style guide and also perfectly normal in many other forms of written English. Like this book, obviously.

I don't ever refer to other people by their surname only. It's bizarre!

Lots of people refer to each other by their surname Smithy for example. However it would have been more respectful to say "Caroline, or Flack as I affectionately called her".

Honestly this book is just the gift that keeps on giving. Who the fuck is advising him?

I can see why it's done but it's a bit impersonal if you're talking about your friends in a book

It is about minimising her personality, and regimenting/minimising her.

He calls his wife Meghan.

Quite disrespectful really. No shock there then coming from the twat that is Harold.

I'm shocked, although probably shouldn't be, by the fact that he isn't aware it should be "papped Flack and me" Did he learn nothing at school? The other person always comes first. This perhaps is not the phrasing my teachers used 😉

I think it's normal (and can be preferred style) when it's a less personal connection, and you're writing say a news or analysis piece.

But when its talking about someone you were having a personal relationship it jars unless, as Lottery says, it's explained as a pet name.

The things people will worry about in this memoir seem to get weirder.

He’s upper class public school educated army boy - he probably does refer to people by surname. Not his wife, obviously- that would be weird. And it’s a pretty standard written style, as a PP says.

Might be a posh boy thing.
I went to Private school and generally the boys referred to each other by their surnames

It's a very public school thing to do, so wouldn't stand out to me as unusual I don't think.
curious as to why people are calling him Harold though? I've seen it a few times on threads recently.

I'm sure it is a posh boy thing, but it sounds so disrespectful. Dehumanises her, not nice at all.

I don't presume Harry sat there and typed the whole book himself

He may have told the stories and his name on the cover but that is probably it

In my experience its always been men who refer to their male friends by surname. Usually in a joke casual way eg Smithy or Greeny.If this excerpt is accurate using Flack seems weirdly impersonal and especially in light if the tragic circumstances that followed in Carolines life is it me or is it insensitive any ?I won't reas the book but how much more detail will he go into and I wonder primarily what her family feel?

@RumNotRun
If we are being pedantic, then I’d suggest it should be ‘Flack and I’
And is ‘pap’ actually a verb?

Because he calls himself Harold in the book

Ahhhhh thanks!

It seems very formal for an ex girlfriend. I understand it works in a newspaper where they don't know the person they're writing about or in an English lit essay or in a boarding school but it seems very formal for someone you went out with.

No probably about it. It’s common knowledge it’s ghost written (but his words).

It’s not Flack and I, the me bit is correct. At least it doesn’t say myself I suppose 😱

In US weekly it's says: 'The Duke of Sussex, 38, was briefly taken with the late TV presenter after meeting her at a restaurant during a night out with mutual friends in 2009.
“Flack, they called her,” Harry wrote in the book...'
So, that's probably why he referred to her in the same way in the book.

I don’t understand people saying it’s dehumanising, it’s a name! As human as any other name. Posh boys often call people by their surnames, it’s a nickname and more individual. He likely knows more than one Caroline, he only knows one Caroline Flack.

It's perfectly normal for friends to have affectionate "nicknames" which may or may not be their surname.

I have several friends who are referred to by their surname.

I might be wrong, but I'm surely I've heard Olly Murs referring to her as "Flack" in the past and they were best friends?