Spare by Prince Harry

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, Price Harry has released a book. 

According to the book Neurotribes (Silverman, 2015), royal family trees are often a special interest for autistic folk. That explains why I have a stack of royal biographies in my book collection, documentaries in my AppleTV account, and random tacky paraphernalia around the house.

The logic side of my brain is on board with the theory that monarchies and royal families are generally, fucking stupid. The pomp and ceremony side of my brain? The one that gets carried away by shiny things? Yeah, she eats this shit up - but only with a little spoon. 

So, is anyone surprised that I’ve landed here? No? Good, let’s get to the point. 

This book is awesome. Not because it’s scandalous, nor does it throw anyone under the bus. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Personal opinion, ol’Harry goes out of his way to be generous and loving about his family. And here’s where he shines: he can see what’s wrong, he’s done the mental health work needed, and he’s come (or still coming?) out the other side with a bigger, realer worldview than his family is capable of. 

All of those stories that make it sound as if Harry is throwing his family under the bus ... yeah, they kind of prove his point about press making up shit. I found this book to be nowhere near as incendiary or scandalous as has been suggested. In some places, it was even ... dull. Surprising in its dullness, because shouldn’t a prince be living the high life, and not doing his shopping at TKMaxx? His story is that average - which is another thing to love. 

I listened to this on audiobook, which made the experience that much greater. It’s a chonker at 15hrs 37 minutes, but I listened at 1.6x speed - the speed at which it felt like listening to a normal conversation. 

Not gonna lie, thought this was going to be a lot juicier than it was, but also appreciated the story for what it was: his story, not Uncle Rupert’s version. Or, worse, Camilla’s.