'Spare' review: Why Harry’s calls for reconciliation will ring hollow to anyone who reads the book

I resolved not to buy Spare despite my abiding interest in royalty (especially British and Indian) as I did not want to contribute to the coffers of a person who is making money from pain—his own and that of others. Serendipitously then, someone sent me a PDF so I could not buy the book and read it too, so to speak! It took me just about two days of binge-reading to get through it, though I admittedly skipped major parts of his military exploits. Verdict? I ended up feeling so sorry for Prince….William. Though it is supposed to be about the Spare, it is clearly triggered by two heirs—overwhelmingly Harry’s brother, and to a lesser extent, his father. Every negative event, every crisis, every frustration, every disappointment is laid at the door of the other two. It really seems as if that Harry had no agency, no will (pun intended) and no grit—except when picking off 25 Taliban in Afghanistan, that is. Every aspect of his life, from his childhood, school days, bereavement and army stint to reckless socialising, Africa do-gooding and finally his love-at-first-sight relationship with Meghan, has a background noise of whingeing about William. At various points, Harry portrays William as ill-tempered, stubborn, cold, unhelpful, jealous, judgemental, grim, treacherous and even violent, knowing full well that his brother cannot speak out in his own defence. Indeed the only positive feature of the book is his obvious adoration of Meghan. If there is a person he truly loves—even more than his mother—it is her. That he sounds utterly besotted and thinks she is the most beautiful, the cleverest, the most talented, the best dressed and certainly the best wife and mother ever is really sweet. But then he spoils it all by peevishly and meanly positing practically his entire family as antagonists in their great love story. Reading of his supposed travails in chapter after chapter, the term “Poor little rich boy” comes to mind. At 30 he inherited $10million from his mother’s estate but says he cooked, cleaned and did his own laundry (including drying his end-of-season sale clothes on the radiator) living in a poky (rent-free) royal cottage, implying his granny and father kept him in poverty. He now speaks (for a fee) for the poor from a $15 million 9-bedroom California mansion. All of Harry’s poison and angst clearly stem from an accident of birth, and a law that neither he nor William had a hand in making. It’s the Act of Settlement 1701 and the associated Bill of Rights whose amendment in 2013 will only impact the next generation of the House of Windsor. William could not help being born first any more than Harry could prevent being born second, but he is blamed for benefiting from whatever goes with the job of being heir. Maybe William now wishes that he could say, “Here Harold, take my life—the bigger bedroom, better apartment, jewels for the wife, the huzzahs and fatter remuneration from the Civil List and the Duchy of Cornwall—and gimme yours. Then I can also live my life the way you always have—without caring about the responsibility that goes with privilege and the limitations imposed by duty.” I fervently wished he could say so, after reading this book. Though his ghostwriter has kept the words supposedly neutral and the tone chatty, Harry’s irrational resentment of William is painfully apparent, as is his total lack of empathy for him. Which is a bit rich as Harry condemns ‘Willy’ for lacking empathy too! All the traumas Harry suffered with the sudden loss of his mother Princess Diana were experienced by William too. Harry was 12 when his mother died, but William was also only a boy—just 15. Charles probably bestowed no more tactile love on his grieving older son than his equally bereft younger one because he, as most royal watchers know, had a rather hugless childhood himself. Yet William probably understood the constraints of his father’s upbringing and eventually (maybe with difficulty) accepted him for what he is. We, of course, have no way of knowing William’s journey as he is unlikely to let it all hang out in a memoir called Heir. At best Harry damns William with faint praise, portrays Kate as a cardboard character and feigns anxiety for the future of the Wales children, though he would probably bristle if William expressed concern for Archie and Lilibet. Hopefully William has not read the book as would be very painful to know exactly how much his brother resents—even hates—him and always did. Harry’s calls for reconciliation will ring hollow to anyone who reads Spare. The author is a freelance writer. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.