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?

He is far more like Prince Philip than the Spencer family, except for the red hair. A photo of Philip as a young man with a beard alongside one of Harry at a similar age went a long way to debunk the Hewitt stories.

Is also interesting that he describes Westminster Abbey as "this horrid roof" yet later on he complains that he can't have WA for his and Meghan's wedding because William nabbed it first.

Why on earth would you want the place you remember as your mother's and great-grandmother's funerals and that you describe as 'horrid' for a wedding venue?

The poor lad seems pretty dim and lost, but I can't help think ideas are being pout in his head. I lost my mother suddenly and traumatically at a similar age (I was 16 and my brother was 13). Obviously we ddn;t go through the whole awful publicity that they did but his hurt and trauma is not unique and he needs to find a less public way of dealing with it and stop lashing out.

There were things that led to my mum's death that could have been done differently and there were ways ,my family dealt with it afterwards that weren't ideal (i ended up being bumped in to a "housewife" role by default for a year or so afterwards and it certainly impacted on my A Levels) but i recognise now we all did the best we could in the face of something horrific and my feeling and the impact on me are mine to own and resolve, no one else's.

he complains that he can't have WA for his and Meghan's wedding because William nabbed it first.

Is that where M wanted to have her small, low-key wedding? 😂

The whole book is full of contradictions. Harry saw Kate as the sister he'd always wanted, but he wrote the book to save the RF "spares" i.e. Charlotte and Louis. But if he wanted a sister growing up then she'd have been a spare too, and in the 80s probably noone would have been willing to change in the primogeniture laws of the time so any other siblings would have been even more spare than Harry. As Paxman said he is just a moaning privileged schoolboy and needs to grow up.

I was surprised by this. I can't imagine anyone doing this.

IMO he looks like a young Charles Spencer I can see ressemblance between both boys for either family side. Much like I can with my own children :)

I was thinking about the description of both children’s births earlier this morning off the back of this thread. It is clear Harry (and likely Meghan too) scour both print and social media and have likely come across the surrogacy talk. I suspect to try and squash this particular rumour and convince everyone there is no truth in it he embellished/overcompensated with the detail of the births to such an extent that it reads, in parts, a bit like something you would see in a movie and becomes unbelievable as an actual real life event. All that does is raise more questions than answers and does nothing to put the rumour to bed.

I used it pretty heavily in labour that went on for hours and hours (felt like days) and I didn't get through whatever was in the cannister when I started. So it must be a fair bit.

(And you are right, it's great!)

I would genuinely never forgive my DP if they took my pain relief drugs to get high while I gave birth. It's appalling behaviour and, while people on here have said it's amazingly common, it's still appalling.

Why, why would he admit that?

Doesn't he also say that she was upset to see her face in all the newspapers on sale in Whole Foods? Problem is, Whole Foods doesn't sell newspapers!

They have revealed so many details about the birth (right down to a very MNetty bag of frozen peas to deal with piles). It seems off that she never released a photo to artistically show her bare bump in the usual style of her mates like Serena.

William resembles the Spencer side - especially his uncle, Diana's brother - much more than Harry does.

Might have been 'Photoshopped'?

I mean, there are photos of a bloke standing on the moon in 1969 but we know for a fact that Wallace and Gromit were the first to go there in 1989.

I think William is a blend of Philip and Diana looks-wise. Harry is just Charles with red hair, including the whinging and "poor me" actually. Charles is much improved with age and since he's been with Camilla but was fairly unlikeable even pre-Diana.

Presumably she didn't know the man in front of her was prince Andrew, rather than never having heard the name prince Andrew before though.

Ditto Sandringham although they do sell the estate apples in the shop and apple juice made from them.

The book sold 400,000 copies in the first week. The ghostwriter will have no problems finding work.

The bit with Archie being inexplicably attracted to the Diana/hunter painting made me roll my eyes, I just say. Provably more than anything else.

I think it's more likely that he has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to labour and birth, and just wasn't paying attention.

Harry should read about the poor original Princess Charlotte of Wales - realise it wasn’t just the spares who had could have it tough. Heir presumptive. Parents who couldn’t stand each other and wrapped up in themselves. Lonely childhood. Father tries to marry her off to men she couldn’t stand. So desperate ran away. Finally gets to marry the man she chooses and find some happiness. Then gives birth to a stillborn son and passes away, leading to Victoria.

Not all families are touchy-feely. I never hugged my parents.

In the nex book (Spite) there will be a photo of the bag of peas. In situ.

Which just happened to be filmed so we could all see. 🙄

I laughed out loud at his favourite quote having been discovered on ‘brainyquote.com’. And then I laughed again at fook.

He's Napoleon the Pig from Animal Farm. His desire for change goes as far as his own ambitions to be the King.