Harry's ghost writer

[StarInTheHeavens]

I can't find his name to look him up but I saw it yesterday. I heard this person is 'award winning'. But some of the things like 'mounted her like a stallion' are unbelievably crude. Does anyone know who he is & what awards he's won? If this style of writing turns out to be true then Harry has been sold well-short, even if the details are cringey.

I was a ghost-writer for a couple of celebrities 30 years ago. The other day I commented on a thread that I was angry with the ghostwriter and editor and publisher for not advising Harry very strongly against including several anecdotes, particularly the one about shooting Afghans. I mentioned pulling out of a ghostwriting contract when it became clear the subject was either severely depressed or medicated and was claiming things that couldn't be true. I felt a duty of care to him, to protect him from repercussions, as well as concerns for my own reputation. That incident made me think much more deeply about the ethics of ghostwriting and I didn't do it again. A couple of people were a bit scathing about my comments here on MN and seemed to think that the ghostwriter had no business editing out juicy bits.

I was delighted today to see this article by Mark McCrum, who says pretty much what I said. Ghostwriting is a balancing act. You want to have enough juicy titbits to make the book sell without leaving the subject's life in ruins. You have to withstand pressure from both sides — the subject's and the publisher's. This is McCrums archived article from today's Telegraph:
archive.today/8bVVO

Insightful thanks pattihew

do you think Harry’s ghost writer should face some sort of consequence if he hasn’t carried out a basic duty of care?

Is this the poster who claimed she planned to read Spare in four European languages, just for the subtle linguistic differences (even though presumably it should be as close to identical as possible)?

I’ve just read it. The patronising posts are still there.

pattihews - did you stop because you thought it was an unethical job? I've never felt that way. Sometimes people have asked me whether it's right that others don't write their own books, but, for me, it's about getting the story out there.

I can't say I've ever had any huge clash with client or publisher over content but this book is completely different to anything else. My agreement is about three pages for private commissions and publisher contracts are usually about 6-10. This one must have been incredibly detailed with so many lawyers involved at every stage.

Yes. The Mark McCrum article is interesting. He’s clear Harry should not have talked about numbers killed in Afghanistan.
@Ticketyboots You ask what Harry gets out of this in the future? Enhanced security comes to mind. He’s fighting a court case on that. Money. The satisfaction of “putting the record straight” and setting his own agenda. His big issue will be his relevance in the next few years. Does he have more hand-grenades to lob?

It also feels that he’s holding his family to ransom. He wants reconciliation but how trustworthy is he? “What next?” must be a hot topic of discussion at the palace? Is there a sequel?

Another aspect of this saga that bothers me: Harry has had access to so much help and advice in his life. Whatever he’s needed, he’s had access to. Far more than ordinary folk. I can see his parents made mistakes with him and in life, and, like many in the RF, being second born is a problem. He wasn’t an ordinary squaddie. He’s visited amazing places as a virtually private person and formed friendships. He’s never been unemployed, poor or uneducated. He’s largely had what he wanted paid for by his family. If he were a nobody, no one would think he had much to say of importance. He only has a platform due to birth.

I hope William and Kate think very hard about the future for their Dc. This saga is a terrible warning for siblings of the future monarch. Andrew is also obviously another second born problem. Not sure how you solve it, but they must!

Yes and this character has had “her” posts deleted for misogyny racism and ageism.

I think this might be the case as it seemed to get unliked when he also did a flurry of other activity. So I wonder if he just logs on intermittently and saw the tags when he did, and realised.

😂I'm sure she will read this thread (if she hasn't already) as it is right up her street. Kudos to her for keeping it up consistently but it is funny when the bumbling professor façade shows a crack or ten.

I'm not sure why there is so much boasting about her language skills. I speak four languages fluently and if you got that ability to pick them up, then you just get on with it effortlessly. She seems to have to apply a lot of effort to deciphering things that should be readily obvious to the world's greatest translator which leads me to conclude that she is probably a hard worker rather than naturally gifted.

I have long suspected her to be an approved moderator paid by some organisation or company 😂to counter the deranged

I really don't buy that this is the ghost's or the publisher's 'fault'. I think he's been dying to tell this story. No-one compelled him to do it, and as for cancelling the contract I'm pretty sure the RF could have found the cash if he went to them and said 'I've fucked up here and need to stop a runaway train'.

I don't think he's been stitched up, I think he's naive and that he thinks somehow all the bantz show him in a good light. I can imagine the writer saying 'are you sure you want to tell the world about your frostbitten John Thomas?' And Harry reminding him it is his 'truths'.

Harry is a grown man, getting on for 40 years old. What 'duty of care' is owed to him?

Also, as the copyright holder, won't he have had to sign off on the final copy before it went to press? He's narrating the audio version himself, so he must have known exactly what the contents were.

Is Moehringer being set up as the scapegoat here?

Yes and no.

No because of Harry's 2013 interview covering much the same ground. But which attracted no opprobrium.

Why - because he mentioned neither numbers nor chess pieces.

He fucked up here. Because he went too far.

Which does make me wonder if his perceptions of Palace advice (which he would have benefitted from for the account that good a good reception) and the degree to which he was protected are, in fact, so skewed as to have become wrong

Agree. I'm a bit baffled by H being spanked after he mounted her like a stallion. I wondered if the original said something like 'then she patted me on the bum' and it's been mistranslated. Or not. We'll know soon enough. It's all quite dreadful though and making me feel like a voyeur who can't stop watching.

Is Moehringer being set up as the scapegoat here?

No, because this is MN where no one carries any responsibility for their actions. It was his mental health, his schooling, his family, his wife, his crap therapist, Oprah Winfrey.

But in the real world, hard-headed business men have common sense, expect you to be responsible and accountable for yourself and that you abide by the contract.

But in the real world, hard-headed business men have common sense, expect you to be responsible and accountable for yourself and that you abide by the contract.

Yes, I think he is about to learn a hard lesson.

Yes, the Spare contract must have been something else. I didn't enjoy ghostwriting. I found the pressure to get close enough to the subject so that they'd relax and let down their guard difficult. My first client mistook me for a friend and overshared. The second subject, older and more experienced, didn't want to tell me anything that wasn't already on public record and resented me for what they saw as intruding. Their agent had talked them into the contract and I had to call in the agent to encourage them to cooperate.

I never had clashes with the publishers, though there's always that pressure to deliver the goods. When I started I regarded the work as just another writing assignment and wasn't prepared for the emotional toil. It's not an easy job. Hats off to you.

Bumbling professor 😂 yes many comments were removed for being insulting and their whole threads even. Professors are usually able to debate in a healthy proactive and respectful manner, just from my limited experience irl anyway!

Not trying to diminish Harry’s responsibility, just wondering if the ghost writer will get some sort of backlash and if that does ever happen. However I am guessing there would have been a legal sign off beforehand to preempt too. Harry’s shown a pattern of managing to throw the blame at others, won’t be surprised if hr does the same if he doesn’t get the reviews he is expecting.

I don't think it's fair to judge an Amercian ghost writer on a Spanish translation that has then been translated again back into English and then summarised by a journalist. Anything you're reading is at least three 'writers' away from the original ghost writer.
Also, the story about the ghost writer liking a negative tweet seems to be false. That story has been running since yesterday but he hadn't liked any tweets relating to the book at all.

I think she slapped him after they’d finished as a sort of “Thanks, you can go now” gesture. It’s why he was humiliated.

I don't think it's fair to judge an Amercian ghost writer on a Spanish translation that has then been translated again back into English and then summarised by a journalist. Anything you're reading is at least three 'writers' away from the original ghost writer.

I completely agree with this. The tabloids will have roped in contract translators to get them extracts to write about I am sure, and those will be accurate enough, but there is a world of difference between that and a literary translation! I need to get business documents translated for work purposes quite often, and the English version that I get can sometimes be quite amusing - tone, nuance and idiom matter so much!

Anyway, the one thing that the ghostwriter obviously won’t yet have received is any actual reviews, since despite all the content being reported and discussed ad infinitum, no reviews have yet been published (I presume PRH must have sent out some advance copies for that, surely?). That could well be very interesting.

That'll be interesting to see if the reviews come back as "hard done by Harry" in contrast with the reaction on SM. It'll give an idea of how in touch critics are and, indeed, if critics can be bought.
Of course, they may think beautiful prose obscures content, although, to be fair, some extracts that have made people roll their eyes might be written in a fun, self-deprecating way that may make him endearing.
It's like an experiment. Will initial SM reaction stay so fixed in our mind that it's too late to be overturned? Or will beautiful writing undermine our original feelings and sway us to sympathy?

I don't know if any review copies went out? The security would have been insane, and it's not the kind of book that needs review coverage to sell. There wasn't a serialisation deal either.

I wonder how different an experience it would be listening to it on the audio - Harry’s own voice in Harry’s own words - wonder if there will be emotion / tone to pick up more than text?

Also do they do sound effects (like a R4 play) on audio books?

ARCs, I mean - assuming exclusive Jiffybags will be couriered all over the place next week.

My Amazon delivery driver said that he was delivering loads of them when my Prime arrived today. I would not have paid that much for a paper copy so fair enough to those who did and are happily reading away.