Strangest bits in Spare…

[Motorcycleemptyness]

i haven’t quite finished it yet but I wanted to read a thread about some of the weirder bits of Spare, and I haven’t seen a thread where people were discussing those without the ‘H&M’ vs the rest of the RF debate. There are definitely some parts which have made me really question why they were included, and I was wondering if anyone else had any similar thoughts.

The inclusion of the imagery of the poppy fields, and how heroin funds the Taliban. Fair enough. We all know that. The rest of the book is one long ode to posh people taking drugs. Does Prince Harry think the cocaine he takes is gently knitted by fairies and delivered to him by unicorns? Do the drugs he takes not contribute to war and terrorism and misery across the rest of the world (and indeed misery and crime in the UK, where he is 5th in line to be monarch!) I found this quite a strange passage and I was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts, or am I just over thinking it?

Elizabeth Arden cream. ‘Mummy’s lips’. ‘Todger’. Why? But really, why? Why was this included? Why did anyone think it or commit it to paper, and then publish it? Why did I read it? Why am I typing it here? ARGH.

What he actually thinks the relationship between the royal family and the press should actually be. Only reporting true things? Someone had a photo of him taking cocaine. Dressed as a nazi. Calling his colleague a ‘P*ki’. He wasn’t happy, but it was all true. Should journalists not be allowed to report true things? Or should they only be reporting things he wants them to report? Does Andrew get to choose that too? What about everyone else?

What the actual royal family should look like. This was mind bending. He seems to be perfectly happy with the idea of the monarchy, an institution which is predicated on the idea that they’re inherently superior to the rest of us, and that’s their birth right, but seems to massively struggle to apply that to himself and William. If a monarchy is the best system, why shouldn’t the heir be treated differently to the spare? (I don’t believe it is the best system and wish we could abolish them all but I don’t understand how one can believe one but not the other!).

Anyone else have any interesting thoughts?

I agree that he believes that he has purchased a precious object in marrying Meghan. The problem is that when the blinkers come off, it could get ugly fast.

In the book, the person with whom he has the appropriate peer/couple conversations is actually Chelsey - the one who got away. Even as his ex, you can see that is the healthier dynamic which makes him look like less of a plonker. He discusses various conversations with Chels, including the fact that Chelsey says they wont pay for Meghan which gave Camilla vibes. Meghan being the bizarrely objectified ole brood mare who doesn't ever seem to fully understand why constant problems are arising and how to resolve them

The marketing strategy for the book was, I think, quite clever. £28 full price is a lot. The last couple of chunky hardbacks I bought by excellent authors were £20. Slap a half price sticker on a very expensive book, and shopaholics can't resist it. If it had stayed at £28, I wonder how many units would have shifted out of genuine interest in the subject/author.

I don’t think that’s how it works. Sales figures count how many are shifted to customers not how many the shops are stocking.
The supermarkets might have overestimated how many they can sell but that doesn’t mean it’s not doing brilliantly compared to other books. And it’s no surprise when you think how much publicity it’s had. How many other books make the national news several days running?

I agree with this but the travesty seems to have worked as there is lots of talks about ‘reconciliation meetings’ in the Press now. It seems like Charles and William are desperately trying to appease him. Makes me wonder what dark things lie in the wings that Harry is threatening to reveal. Perhaps he once walked in on Pa having sex with Angela Kelly? The mind boggles:

Blackmail not travesty!

Randomly, the use of the word ‘gaol’ instead of ‘jail’ stuck out for me. Just that one word in a whole lot of other words

Is that because the ghostwriter is American? Harry wouldn’t say nightstand surely either.

I dunno. Peace talks might be Charles chucking a chunky file on the negotiation table entitled "Harry: the Shit He Got Up To The Palace Was Able To Suppress." Or a little chat with M16 about the security harm he's done/ doing. I am not wholly convinced Harry has a lot of juicy blackmail material. The stuff in Spare is pretty lame. I think the 400 pages removed may well have been whinging drivel about minor rubbish that the editors knew would make him look (even more) stupid and petty. I reckon Harry's puffed up sense of his own self importance (and lack of historical knowledge) means that he thinks the Great Travesty of 1998, When William Got Pa's Last Rolo, feels like an episode deserving inclusion in the annals of Royal history.

Yes I am from N Ireland and found the bit about the soldier unreal. I’m not amazed he wasn’t bright enough to realise in the circumstances the soldier was v unlikely to regard himself as Irish, but I am amazed that there has been no coverage of what he thought there was to give someone a hard time about because he thought they were Irish. Not ok to be racist against any one else

Haha! Yes I agree.

This is a man who is obsessed about being ‘ginger’. He brings it up constantly. Lots of Posh Boy stereotyping. Even hair loss is something that not he and W seem to have a thing about. It’s all very adolescent really. Perhaps he’d never come across Irish people before he joined the Army.

On the 11th, the day after publication, my local Tesco hadn't sold a single copy!

I think sales figures do include what supermarkets and bookstores sell, as they buy them from the publisher's sales reps at a discount and can often afford to sell them even at a loss where independents can't, although I think they can return books if they don't sell. There was something in the Guardian recently about how independents can't usually afford to sell celebrity memoirs unless they are signed copies.

I think this is right anyway.

That makes it worse if it is the case, because if he hasn’t met any Irish people then how does he know what to say to give them a hard time. It’s not like him claiming he didn’t know p*ki was a derogatory term. He actually does know he is being derogatory, he just thinks it’s funny

Yes I agree, I bet Meaghan spent plenty of time in front of it pointing it out with Archie when Harry wasn’t about.

I’m listening to the audio version and really enjoying it. Harry is a brilliant narrator. We’re so used to happy families spin from the Royal family and public figures in general and I find his revelations not only fascinating for what they reveal about the Windsor PR machine but as a human story. Of course it’s one-sided and he’s certainly settling scores but it’s unlike anything I can remember in public life before and for that I salute him. I say this as an erstwhile (internal) critic of their decision to leave and the way they did so.

This bit is so lol and he builds up to it so portentously! I don’t believe that this happened at all tbh

Petronella Wyatt was on Times Radio the other day saying the bully was not Meghan but Harry.

I'm starting to think the same.

Also, as anybody who has been emotionally abused will know, it's often the victim who looks like they're the abusive one, or one who is unreasonable, in public. Seeing all the things Harry is admitting to, combined with his apparent relationship with women, it sounds like it could be that he deliberately undermined her ability to gel with his family. It's a massive power play to let her struggle in front of his relatives, isn't it? While he watches on.

I'm not saying anything more here than his own words have made me re look at certain situations they've both described personally (not newspaper reports).

I'm also not saying she's an angel - it's very clear that she wants to be with a prince to have put up with his behaviour and love of drugs. She comes across as a clean-eating, yoga loving health conscious woman. Not someone who gets drunk, takes drugs and hits protection officers..but then again, who know?

And if KC has rights over their children (does he if they're in California?) that actually puts her in a vulnerable situation.

I agree. The book has seriously taken off the mystique of the royal family.

Which is exactly what the Queen worked so hard to maintain. I'm glad she didn't see this, it would have been very cruel at the end of her life.

I think those of us who are older and well aware of Squidggygate, ToeSuckinggate and all the other nonsense that went on during the 80s and 90s aren't particularly star struck by the "mystique" of the RF. It's a credit to the Queen that she managed to turn around the image so much over the last 20 years of her reign, such that some thought they were the perfect family.

Meghan gave out bags of drugs at her first wedding. Her father regularly smoked weed. I don’t think she and drugs are strangers to each other.

Sales figures are based on the numbers shipped out to retailers. The publishers.couldn’t possibly keep track of sales to customers.

It's his very one sided squewed and unpleasant take on things. Full of cringeworthy twaddle people collapsing in tears and 'white knuckles'. He really is a drama queen.

Do you think he should be discussing William's circumcised penis, or the 'not hot' teacher with a crooked spine. Let alone his 'chess piece kills' in Afghanistan.

He has done to to the rf exactly what he moaned about Markle senior doing. Invading privacy to score points and for his bank balance. Very noble Harold!

You salute him .

According to Tom Bower, Doria was a frequent partaker as well.