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?

It would be funny to listen to one brother saying he had less sausages than the other, if only it wasn’t funny.( I can’t imagine refusing another sausage to a teenage boy.)
I also think that Harry is emotionally stuck at 12, which is not uncommon after childhood trauma.
He also clearly has no idea how entitled he is, and always has been.

I think it's clear he has severe MH issues that need addressing fully.

I may have the wrong idea but I have the feeling that his 'therapy' in the US consisted of him talking and the therapist nodding, or being suggestive, in the wrong way.

I have friends who had therapy in the US and the UK, and some of them ended up worse than when they had started. Very introspective, very me, me, me.

He really does need more help of a different kind.

I'd love to hear Prof Tanya Byron's views on it- she's a UK expert, clinical psychologist, on dysfunctional families and adolescents.

@Mingmoo I am head down pounding the desk with laughter. Fajitas and dancing in labour? What alternate universe is this?

Thank you so much for writing this on the internet since it's unlikely I will read the book. You've brought me much joy.

Loving the STRANGE theme.

Spare is a great name for a sitcom of maybe even a film, in the vein of “Snatch” perhaps.

I think I read somewhere that promotion beyond Captain would have required getting through a rigorous appraisal and promotion selection process and that it's highly unlikely Harry would have progressed any further.

I agree that much of this (the book, all the interviews, the TV show) has the appearance of being encouraged by a therapist, who has told him that in order to move forward in his life he has to confront his ‘attackers’, who H has decided are the royal family. Of course he had a very difficult childhood and being part of the royal family is a dysfunctional existence, but I think he is stuck in the mindset that he is the (only real) victim of it all.

The fact that he refers to his mother as “mummy”. Not “my mummy”. I find it really odd when people do that.

He’s written the fastest selling non fiction book of all time, I think he can name his price.
Though non fiction is a stretch.

That is exactly what I think . I actively avoid looking at any displays I have seen anywhere.
His eyes look like someone on the hard scruff…butterflies in my tummy !

I'd stored the surrogacy rumours under 'definitely not possible' partly because I'm not sure the RF would have been able to include them in the line of succession.

But, both the birth stories are just weird.

Portland running out of entonox, H saying she had two injections in her spine... does he mean the epidural needed to be resited... or does he genuinely mean she had two injections? How on earth was an older first time mother able to leave hospital an hour after delivery and post-induction and epidural? Surely the Portland would be taking no risks with a Royal birth?

Also the suggestion that H could see the cord was round Archie's neck and thinks they'd do an emergency c-section? You're not doing a caesarian when the baby's head is already delivered - what does he think they do? Yank it back through the birth canal.

Why are they eating Nandos in a hospital that has superb catering on demand?

If you go through the stories and consider a hypothetical surrogacy he's actually made it look far more credible.

Yes it reminds me of Freud’s portraits where they get so under the skin of the subject that they reveal things the sitter doesn’t like.

@Dustyblue it's so weird! With my conspiracy theory hat off I think it's likely that the ghost writer made it up based on TV shows and that no one who has actually given birth read the book or felt able to query it before it was published. He says their bodyguards got them food, which is also strange - weren't they busy guarding them? It's honestly like something from a film.

2 injections is possible. I had a numbing injection before the epidural injection.

Yes, all those things stood out for me too. No way would a woman be leaving hospital an hour after a birth as he describes.

She wasn't exactly booked into a Premier Inn the night she died.

Yes, on the way home from a KFC drive-thru!

Patineur · Today 01:37
I think the choice of picture on the front is fairly bizarre. It reminds me of those photofit mugshots of criminals. Also Alfred E. Neuman

😂😂😂😂😂 Definitely Alfred E. Neuman! I call it the "would you buy a used car from this man?" picture (answer = no)

I haven't read the book, was planning to maybe get it from a charity shop later (but having read this I'm not sure I'll bother) but can anyone please clarify the Lesotho flowing cape bit? Was it just a bad translation from Spanish?

William looks completely like Diana. His odd-shaped bald patch is unfortunate but when he was dressed up at the funeral and hand it covered up, he almost looked like a different person and the resemblance clearly remains.

Diana was at least as posh and arguably “posher” than the current RF. She possibly bought into the romance of it, she was so young with no experience of boyfriends. Also perhaps she wanted the power that comes with the status ?
Harry is like her in many ways but not in looks. He looks more like Charles but with red hair from the Spencers.

messybutfun · Today 09:17
Since Harry had no access to money and his dear wife had to pay for the furniture, what I really need to know is: Who paid for the drugs?

I think another poster answered this well when they said in H's mind the substances were possibly knitted by fairies and delivered by unicorns. I don't think he has the brains to work out that what he says doesn't really compute and the plebs might see the holes in the story, one of them being where is his responsibility/admission of wrongdoing for adding to the misery of the drugs trade?

--a bit like Rishi then 😅

Maybe the Entonox reacted badly with whatever else he had taken and he hallucinated it all 🤔😂

I wonder who bought Harry's drugs ? I can't see him doing any deals himself as I would think a drug dealer is the last person you can trust not to blab .

Unfortunately not...

I think he was taking drugs when he watched Priscilla…