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 think Harry is stuck emotionally at 12. That isn’t uncommon with a traumatic loss like he had. His family are clearly very dysfunctional. I was struck that though he says he had a very close relationship with the Queen, he admits he never hugged her. The scene where he asks her if he can propose to M is telling. He tries to get her on her own during a shooting party and she is impatient and dismissive. He seems scared of her. Even then they don’t hug, there is no affection and the Queen seems reluctant to grant permission. He and William rarely hug and don’t talk about their mother. Charles calls him darling boy yet spends very little time with him and shows no physical affection. Even on the day he’s told of his mothers death, he lies in his room alone until 9 am. There is absolutely no description of his grandparents comforting him or what he said to William.
I think his memory is very selective anyway and his book is skewed, but clearly he experiences his family as cold and remote. He comes across as as desperate, needy and lonely. Also very immature and fucked up.
His therapist has clearly been useless and he needs to find another one. It’s all very sad.
He really really needs to stop the tell all whinging and accusations and behave with some grace now. He won’t though.

Good point.

He says he never hugged her yet there are pictures everywhere of them hugging

Who tries for a private conversation at a shooting party?

I dont understand the woe woe woe nonsense when there are literally photos of him doing what he denied happened

He looks nothing like Diana IMO. William looks like Diana and Harry is totally Charles.

I enjoyed the book as a piece of entertainment. It's well written and flows well enough. I started out a defender of Harry and Meghan's as I dislike the mailesque knee-jerk vitriol and thought it unfair.

On the whole I thought Harry didn't come through well in the book. With most outstanding points already having been made, my additions to this are his oh-so casual misogyny and his lack of maths.

When he was dating Chels (Chelsy Davy), she was confused why press knew her movements. Harry asked her brother to check under the car. Harry says he told her brother exactly what to look for and how to remove it. I'm guessing the sub-text is Harry's 'look at me taking control and being the capable guy protecting those dear to me'. But all I can think of is pretty, and pretty useless Chels standing prettily by the roadside as the Big Men take charge. I bet your bottom dollar Chels is a lot more capable that given credit for. If there was a good reason that Chelsy herself couldn't look for and remove the device, it wasn't made clear.

Another grating moment that hasn't already been touched on in the thread was when Charles told Harry that Meghan wouldn't be paid for. Harry was aggrieved and said something along the lines of: 'We just need to be clothed and fed, and Meg doesn't really eat that much.'

So I'm guessing Harry has NO idea how much money is spent on him and why. He must think the staff are volunteers (and jolly lucky to boot).

And that was it for me guys, that's when I finally ran out of sympathy for Harry.

That front cover picture gives me the heebee geebies. It’s really disturbing and if I saw it in a bookshop I’d be walking past it quickly.

He's clearly a damaged and angry man. Since he's happy to 'curate his memories' and doesn't seem to rate 'objective facts' he's also an unreliable source. Sadly, being utterly dishonest (MM having to admit that she did work with Omid on Finding Freedom to the courts) doesn't seem to impact people's willingness to listen to them. I don't think the RF understand that his end game is to ruin them, and if they try to talk to him, it will just be more ammunition. I feel for them, and I think Harry has serious mental health issues that need a good therapist, not an enabling one.

Oh and I think he has a massive issue with women - either idealised or disparaged. Kinda a Madonna Whore complex going on.

I've only read part 1 so far.

I had quite a giggle at him criticising the journalist's writing ability.

Quite a few random bits that don't make sense. It doesn't seem finished. Every thought is just slapped on the page and it hasn't been edited yet. It's a rough draft that's not gone through the full writing process yet.

One of the strangest things is using the images of Diana as some sort of religious icon, like putting the pregnancy test next to her image. Or the box of hair.
Definitely quasi religious.

Meghan gave out weed as favours at her first wedding and due to an ancient perogative legal custody of the kids is actually Charles’s.

He said half of it was discarded as too damaging, and I wonder if that explains the incomplete bits?

That made me snort my drink (picturing biking midwife with canister)

They were plumbed in where I was, I know because I kept yanking on the mask and could see where the tube attached to it hit the wall.

Maybe Harry's bodyguards bribed the midwifes with free Nando's for a canister?

That was the other Strange part- my wife was in hideous pain so I sent out for Nando's.

One of the weirdest bits for me was Meghan eating fajitas and dancing while in labour with Lillibet. I threw up constantly in labour for my first child and was utterly nauseated with the second one, plus I had a very badly upset stomach. The way he describes her birth is really odd and vague. (I know there are lots of rumours about one or both kids being surrogate and I'm inclined to file that under internet paranoia but it jarred for me.)

I’ve just read the bit where he decides he wants to propose to Meghan, and he discusses this with his staff/advisers. He says that this is the first he’s heard about the law which states that the first 6 in line to the throne have to ask permission of the monarch. I simply do not believe that he wouldn’t have been aware of this law before that point. Both Charles and William would have had to ask permission and it’s just not credible that Harry wouldn’t have known that and known the reason why.

That's what surprised me, how ignorant he seems to have been about basics in the family, or how he's misconstrued them. It's really odd.

But then those bits should have been reworked in the editing process.

If I was the ghostwriter I would be embarrassed to put my name to it, and would never expect paid work again.

I think harry left the army due to security risks, there was a leak on his location and he was operational, which put the whole unit at increased risk.

so he came out and was supposed to work with injured service people

I've not read the book yet but from everything I've heard it sounds like a real jumble of fact, myth and fantasy. I have no idea how hard he must be to live with, he sounds disordered. I think Meg is just an old fashioned narc who enjoys the fame and money but I think she will tire of his neediness.

God no. Young Philip was extremely handsome. Harry frankly is not.

Philip was ten times the man Harry is in every way

Meghan didn't know who Prince Andrew was. She thought he was HMQ's assistant. Yet she knew Eugenie before she knew Harry.

"The question of how to pay for a home and security kept Meg and me awake at night. We could always spend some of my inheritance from Mummy, we said, but that felt like a last resort. We saw that money as belonging to Archie." Words genuinely fail me. Oh not, THAT £10m. That's a special £10m, which we will not be spending on a house. Because it's special. For Archie. Instead, we will regard ourselves as impoverished and desperate and cut off. What WHAT?

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

Because he'd reached the end of the line?

He's not the brightest and I think there was nowhere (upwards) for him to go.

And, who knows if his MH issues were apparent to the RAF?

In an odd sort of way it's good for his memory of Diana that she died when he was quite young. If she hadn't, he'd have grown up realising that she was a normal, fallible human being and may well have ended up among the villains as he has such a black-and-white view of women.

The drugs were free. And then everyone in Colombia clapped and danced in the street?

What do you make of Meghan allegedly having 2 epidurals and then being home 90 minutes after Archie made his entrance?