Harry’s going spare, again
ILOVE the title of Harry’s new book, Spare. It’s so clever it clearly wasn’t thought up by him. It comes from the age-old saying “the heir and the spare” to describe the monarch’s first-born and their sibling. Although I think for Harry, Spare Part might be a better moniker. But I laughed out loud at the publisher’s blurb which said the title “lends itself to Harry’s sense of humour”.What sense of humour?When was the last time anyone saw Harry laugh? He always looks like a bulldog chewing a wasp.
All Harry’s known for now is whingeing and crying: “Poor Me”. And yes, in this book, to be published in January – for which he’s getting £36.8million in a three book deal – there’s lots of that.
He apparently wants us to know he’s been through a lot. OMG, we know, we know! He’s told us every cough and spit of what he’s been through and we’re bored witless by it. Why would we pay £28 (the book price) to have all that self-pitying tosh regurgitated?
The gist of the book is that Harry feels, being the “Spare”, he wasn’t valued and it was some terrible burden to bear because, unlike his brother, he had no defined role. Newsflash! Most of us are born without a defined role. We have to carve one out for ourselves. Second, this is one of the richest, most privileged men on the planet yet he can never see himself as anything other than a victim.
It’s no one’s fault he’s the Spare. He was born after Wills so THAT’S his birthright. He was never going to be King and he needs to get over that. But what he forgets is that birthright came with stupendous privileges. Yet still he prefers to be “Poor Victim Harry”.
Trouble is, no one’s buying that any more.
Not when he lives in a £12million mansion. Not when his annual salary is a lottery win. Not when he has a wife he loves and two beautiful, healthy kids. There has been much speculation as to whether, after the Queen’s death, Harry would ditch or tone down his book, that seeing his family at the funeral might have made him think twice about trashing them – again! But, no, it hasn’t.
HE’S THOUGHT to have made some changes – not to spare his family, I’m sure, but to add some titbits from the funeral and to stop worldwide condemnation from those who would accuse him of appalling crassness in doing it so soon after Her Majesty’s passing. But how selfish of him to publish this book at a time his father has just ascended the throne. Charles has waited a lifetime to be King and now that he is, Harry’s “Pity Me” book could do him huge damage. But remember just because Harry says something is true – it doesn’t mean it actually is. So his father’s reputation could be destroyed by something that never happened.
And anyone who imagines Harry’s supposed love and respect for the Queen would have made him tone down whatever cruel accusations he was about to make in the book should think again. The publishers, Penguin Random House, will insist on lots of tacky, nasty slurs about the royals because they’re paying the big bucks and they’re not doing that for Harry’s dreary “uplifting personal journey from trauma to healing”.
They’ll expect dirt and details about the royals, and the funeral.And on Harry’s past form, they’re likely to get it!