Spare a thought for Prince Harry
Duke of Sussex has lead an often turbulent life, writes Tony Nielsen
After writing hundreds of reviews it should be like falling off a log, right? Not this time. Reading 407 pages wasn’t the problem. It’s how to compress that into a few paragraphs which convey a life story which has been headlined for years, and challenges the reader to make sense of it, to believe or disbelieve. To understand a very complicated man who’s already lead an extraordinary life. The first and most important point for me is that Spare is extremely well written. Take a bow Prince Harry’s ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer. Together they’ve written a book that’s always easy to read.
Obviously the appeal of the inside story of one of the world’s unique institutions has turned Spare into a landslide bestseller. You, the reader will have to make the critical decision as to what’s believable or not. Of course Prince Harry was the younger son of the universe’s most admired women, hence his title Spare, often living in the shadow of his brother William, who is destined to follow Charles as King. Harry now languishes as sixth in line to the throne.
William and Harry enjoyed a pretty much idyllic childhood, and then their young lives were blown apart when Princess Diana died in a motor accident in a Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997. Prince Harry was just 12 and the brothers had to endure a very public funeral through London streets. His life in the shadow of that day has impacted his life since. From Eton he made the decision to follow in the footsteps of other family members by embarking on a military career.
Alongside that as he describes it himself he lead a life on the edge, with alcohol and drugs playing a part. In spite of pressure from the palace he served on the frontline , as a soldier, and then a pilot of an Apache attack helicopter. Perhaps, almost certainly influenced by his mother’s death, Harry struggled to form longterm relationships and his frequent escapades exposed by the British tabloid press challenged his lifestyle.
Most of Spare dispenses the details of his life in the military and his role as a working royal. And then, almost as a miracle he met and wooed Meghan which was also shared with readers, often, it seems without much adherence to the truth.
Prince Harry’s fallout with the royal family only occured after his marriage, and, contrary to all of the recent publicity takes up the last 50 or so pages of Spare.
A surprisingly good read, now my internal jury will have to meditate over which parts of his story that I believe or not. Good luck with that.
— Tony Nielsen