Spare – Prince Harry

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight. At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love. Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . . For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

This book contains:

References to drug use
Depictions of killing in a war zone
Descriptions of the impact of suicide and manslaughter
Descriptions of online and in person harassment.

While I don’t read many biographies, like many people, I was drawn to this one out of pure fascination about what I might learn about the royal family. They’re so closed off with the public (understandably) that any hint of what happens behind closed doors is of course something that creates anticipation.

While I can understand that many people are sick of Harry and Meghan “bashing” the royal family to make money, I think we also need to remember that they were suddenly left without any way to pay for security and a home. So, when companies like Netflix, Spotify and Penguin can see a way to offer them a LOT of money and create public interest that they know they can make money off of, it’s not smart financially to refuse those deals.

So, I tend to view what’s released under these contracts with a grain of salt. I remember that most likely, there was a requirement to spill the beans on a certain number of private details to enable them to get the big bucks they needed.

So, on that note, I’m going to focus this review more so on the way Harry’s story was told. Knowing he had a ghostwriter; I expected a certain level of professional writing and editing. And was sorely disappointed.

Not only did the chapters, time progressions, flow and general storytelling make for a very confusing read. But it felt like someone with ADHD, no writing experience or knowledge and a really bad editor wrote it.

As I’ve said, I don’t really read biographies, so I don’t know if that’s normal, but it just felt all over the place, scatterbrained, difficult to follow and generally not well thought out or planned. Little things like linking chapters together so you can understand why you’re changing and how the story is progressing is important, even in a biography.

Baring that, having much smaller and clearer “parts” or “sections” would’ve worked much better. Keeping chapters related to Africa and conservation together, family relationships together, his feelings about his mother’s death together, war tours together etc etc. That’d at least have kept a similar theme to each chapter in a section which would help with that linking.

In terms of the content, while I can understand the scepticism of some parts, I find it hard to believe that that’d mean NOTHING is true. There are certainly elements that even I’m sceptical about, but there are others that from what I’ve seen through the media make sense. They just make a few questions I’ve had in the back of my head fall into place.

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Spare – Prince Harry

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