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?

She had a fling with Rory mcIllroy in Dublin.

She was spotted by the maids in Rory’s suite

Totally agree with this. He is then indebted to her, outraged at her ‘treatment’ by his family and his country. Look what she’s sacrificed for him! Look how loyal and marvellous in every level she is! Blah blah. He then feels he must sacrifice himself in very ways to keep her inside. She has a lifestyle she never could have dreamed of without him. He was always going to be rich and pampered and not have to work.

Keep her onside

@Ridemeginger Lol! Yes, Rory! :)

@MonsoonMadness is the money going to be enough if you’re right? Might it turn out , to be a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’?

Also, Kate & certainly sister, lovely/decent, (taps nose) I find it very hard to believe she’d be bitchy or churlish. Even if not her cup of tea, she’d give her a fair chance.

Bridesmaidsgate & Lipglossgate seem so petty & we’re only getting one side of story.

While at the same time apparently trying to portray William as a bit of a weakling compared to himself - he wrote something in the book that people have said was a deliberate snipe at William - how Harry was the physically tougher one. Sorry a bit vague on details as I haven’t read the book but it was covered on a YouTube channel.

And yet which brother was it that put the other on their arse in a dog bowl? 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Lizziet64 what was it they were driving at I wonder & I guess only they themselves know if being ‘fake’?

Might it be here they proclaimed about how they wanted to ‘serve’ & that wasn’t, in fact, ultimate plan? So, being defensive?

Or possibly they weren’t being honest when they said all had been warm & welcoming?

I find it really odd how gives as an example of Queen Victoria's tragic life that her father Edward was a sadist who got aroused by soldiers being whipped. I've only read Lucy Worsley's book on her, (who just said he was a tough disciplinarian, hence the whip) but have any historians suggested this? Besides, surely the tragedy for Victoria is that he died when she was one. Probably she didn't know much about his sadism, let alone whether it was sexual.

They're relying on the RF not to dignify their crap with a response.

Personally I'd like to know the outcome of the bullying investigation.

Personally I'd like to know the outcome of the bullying investigation.

I think a lot of us would.

I wonder if it’s being used as a threat. “You overstep the mark, Harold, and we’ll tell the world about all the poor buggers you upset and cancel their NDAs”.

harry’s Grasp of history is clearly quite weak. It doesn’t say a lot for Eaton’s, does it?

That's a bit 'you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink'

I get the feeling the young Harry didn't listen much in lessons. Now for your average private schoolie they'd get kicked out if they couldn't / wouldn't keep up the pace. Prince Harry of Wales was hardly the average private schoolie.

I think eventually shel have had enough . She’ll get a very good settlement and be set for life. Security is the issue. They will need to pay for two sets.

Sorry for the unfortunate autocorrect in my last post. Eton not Eaton.

It should be leaked, but I doubt it. It will prob incriminate the palace too for covering it up/dithering with acting. Another example of how covering for Harry has backfired for the palace.

Also found the bit about the sadistic whipping a strange inclusion. Was he trying to subtly painting the family as being descended from tyrants and degenerates?

Also, I think I read a bit about how the corgis were always raucous around him, but with Meghan they were calm / lying at her feet right away (vaguely remember it, pretty sure it was in spare). It’s a bit like reading a holy text, when it doesn’t explicitly state someone’s the chosen one. Instead thr test is peppered with examples of others noticing their superior purity. In spares case it’s the seals and corgis and all of his family who are so impressed with her whilst also looking down at her cos she’s American/divorcee/biracial- but even then that was cos they were brainwashed by the British media’s narrative. Double think required to read the book!

Ginmonkeyagain · 16/01/2023 09:05

I am not sure why he didn't continue with his army career - a lot of Spares did.

I haven't rtft so don't know if this was answered previously, but I believe there was concern over PH's ability to pass the exams needed to move higher up the army ranks.

Yes, he’d never have got through staff college. And there was also the small matter of his drug use.

@Ellmau @Sugarfree23 Harry talks about his History teacher at his Prep & names him, in ‘Spare’:

‘What could be odder, he said to me, than a British prince not knowing British history?

‘why memorise the names of past spares, what was the point of that’? [Harry]

’Wales, you must know this’

’Why?’

’Because they’re your family’

’My family had declared me the nullity, the spare!’

He’d overstepped [says Harry on teacher]

‘It’s good for you, Wales, the more I call on you, the more you learn’.

Harry says it would all be a cinch if anyone did the reading but nobody did.

Harry isn’t academically interested & privately asks his History teacher to stop embarrassing him. He ultimately responds by giving him a ruler he’s carved himself: all the Kings in chronological order [rulers, get it :) says the book] . A kind gesture but curiously I don’t think H sees it thus. Indeed he paints this man as on oddball who sees his dogs as children & not in a complimentary way. ’A tad eccentric’.

You can’t help feeling H would be happier at Gordonstoun. Harry also says he learns at a glacial pace compared to the other boys & whilst no expert I wondered about slow processing, neuro diversity & ADD/ADHD.

H says the other boys at Eton called him the ‘Spare’, sounds unkind. If he wasn’t great at Sport I think he’d have been much worse off.

H fails to realise how fortunate he was to have a well meaning, passionate specialist at his disposal (then & now).

Indeed, fortunate to go to Eton with the small classes, extra tuition and amazing facilities. Rather than an under resourced non selective state school with classes of 30.

Good grief, he really is obsessive about this "spare" thing, isn't he? He was whinging about it to his history teacher in prep school, and pretty obviously his Eton classmates were calling him "spare" precisely because they knew it would wind him up. But.a lot of his sensitivity about it is down to his own ignorance of the origin of the term - yes it was a classic "joke" that aristocratic wives had to produce an heir and a spare, with the corollary that they could then be let off sex/ go and have affairs having done their duty; it wasn't derogatory to the second child. He compounds it with his weird belief that he was there to provide spare organs for his brother which is really his own interpretation - I'm prepared to bet he's never looked into just how statistically difficult it would be to guarantee that a second child is a tissue match for the first, let alone the fact that it would be illegal and grossly unethical.

Maybe if he had just listened a bit more in history and science, he could have spared himself an awful lot of anguish.