Spare

I am in no way a royalist, but with TV shows like The Crown and never-ending news coverage of royal drama, it was a bit hard to avoid hearing about this book. It generated a bit of a media storm when it came out, with plenty of eyebrow-raising quotes being eagerly shared by news outlets – especially those related to Prince Harry’s sex life. Ultimately, it was curiosity that let me to spending a credit on this audiobook.

“Spare” by Prince Harry, narrated by Prince Harry and ghostwritten by J. R. Moehringer is a memoir about growing up third in line to the British throne. In this book, Prince Harry shares pivotal moments in his life including losing his mother Princess Diana as a young boy, serving in the military in Afghanistan, travelling in Africa and meeting his wife Meghan Markle. He also shares his experiences being relentlessly pursued by the media and struggling to find his place in a family where living a normal life is impossible.

This was a surprisingly easy book to listen to. Despite admitting himself that he is no scholar, Prince Harry is a lively, enthusiastic and expressive narrator who threw himself headlong into the task. His early years were particularly interesting, especially seeing the other side of news reports that had branded him a wild child and considering the impact of having adolescent mistakes, that many people could forget and move on from, becoming international news. The most heartbreaking parts of the book were around the loss of his mother, and Prince Harry’s grief and his fury towards the paparazzi ripple throughout. I felt like Prince Harry was very frank about his shortcomings, but equally open about how challenging it was for him as someone who craved being an ordinary sort of man but being unable to live an ordinary life, not even, ultimately, as a soldier. It was abundantly clear that Prince Harry feared the same thing that happened to his mother was going to happen to his wife, and his hatred of the media became more understandable. I was fascinated to read about the rest of the royal family’s complex interactions with the media, particularly the competition for publicity, the leaks coming from inside the house and the symbiotic yet often toxic relationship.

As I have mentioned many times previously, memoir is and continues to be a genre that I struggle with, especially when it comes to finding a balance in how much to share with the reader. There were many parts of this book that were intensely personal, and as a reader left me feeling like I was reading Prince Harry’s private journal. This was especially true for parts of the book that had a slightly more spiritual tone, where Prince Harry interprets certain events as being ‘fate’, or signs of approval from his mother, or messages from the broader universe. I also found myself wondering what the purpose of sharing some of the more intimate details of his life was; whether it was a strategic marketing decision to generate more hype and controversy around the book, or whether because Prince Harry was using the book as a sort of catharsis, processing his life in a very public way. Conversely, I felt like I was left with many questions about his various disputes with other members of the royal family. Despite how the book has been reported, I actually felt like Prince Harry was very circumspect in talking about his family. If the book was intended to be a response to the media’s characterisation of the relationships within his family, I’m not sure it achieved that goal.

A surprisingly entertaining book that at times left me wanting more and at others left me wanting less.