Prince Harry's memoir is offering a gloomy insight into his new life. Photo / AP
Prince Harry's memoir is offering a gloomy insight into his new life. Photo / AP
Opinion by Daniela Elser
OPINION:
What do you look for in a beach read? A thrilling page-turner, all dead-drops and men named Sergei? A spicy romance where bodices end up in tatters and bosoms do lots of heaving? The story of a brave Yankee lawyer who finds himself fighting for justice in the American south?
Really, when it comes down to it, what most of us want as we crumb ourselves with sand at the beach and forget to reapply the SPF 50 is to be entertained and drawn into exciting new worlds, and not to, generally, wallow in the misery of a dysfunctional family for hundreds of pages.
Come early next year though, that is what we will be able to do after it was revealed this week that Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir is set to hit shelves and Kindles on January 10.
Then, on Friday, the book’s title – Spare – and the cover, an uncomfortably close-up shot of the Duke of Sussex staring unflinchingly straight down the barrel of the camera, were released with much flourish.
The whole thing nearly audibly thrums with emotion and meaning; here is a man, we are being told, who knows a thing or two about hurting.
What is so marked is the distinctly negative tone of the whole thing.
Spare. Photo / AP
Let’s start with the title, seemingly referring to the expression “the heir and the spare”. What is striking is that even after nearly three years in North America – three years of being able to make his life his own, having thrown off the strictures of royalty and finally having the freedom to show the world who he is – Harry’s sense of identity is still so bound up in what he is not: i.e. the heir.
If anyone had been wondering if the Duke had any sort of serious chip on his shoulder for not being destined for the throne, or over his treatment by his family because he would never wear the Crown, then voila!
Picking “Spare” here doesn’t so much speak volumes and crashes and bangs about the place with a cacophonous din. Harry might have long walked out of the palace gates, his never-ending collection of grey polo shirts and beaded bracelets now residing in Montecito but “spare” would suggest that he has yet to truly move on. After everything, it would seem that he still views himself through the lens of his monarchical status.
With their choice of title, the Duke and his publisher have eschewed taking this opportunity to introduce the world to Harry 2.0: All-American Edition, to perhaps build his image on optimism and a certain “heal-thyself!” pep, but instead to sell him to the masses as a man defined by an unerring sense of victimhood.
As Duncan Larcombe, former royal editor at the Sun and a biographer of Harry has told The Daily Beast: “Spare is not a nice word in the royal sphere where it’s a derogatory, very loaded term, suggesting you are a substitute and not important.”
At what point will he take control and start to define himself by what he has made of his life and not his childhood?
The title is a nod to William and Harry’s roles as "heir and the spare", with William as heir to the throne, and Prince Harry as his spare. Photo / AP
The other question the title raises is whether Harry is expecting us to have oodles of sympathy for him because his brother is destined for the throne and he was destined for the dignity-eroding role of back-up? Again, a rubbish scenario for him to have experienced but is anyone entitled to even a smidge of sympathy just because they are not going to be king? There is not a violin tiny enough in the world to play here.
“I’m not sure how well that is going to go down,” Larcombe told the Beast. “He may not have had the easiest of lives – but who has?”
Then there is the book’s cover, with his olivey T-shirt and the sun-bleached lighting suggesting a certain military vibe. Is the shot meant to hark back to his two tours in Afghanistan? To really drive home to readers that this is a man who served his country in a capacity other than opening the occasional hospital wing? Again, it all feels like Harry is stuck pathologically in the past.
Unsurprisingly, the royal family is not, reportedly, impressed by the Duke’s title.
The Telegraph reported it was “particularly hurtful to family members who had tried to help the Prince avoid the ‘spare’ role while he was a working royal”, while one royal source labelled the choice “very pointed”.
“Imagine if he’d published this with the Queen still here?” another source mused.
Harry’s sense of identity is still so bound up in what he is not: i.e. the heir. Photo / AP
It’s also worth pausing and considering how far away this memoir would appear to be from what was first announced in July 2021 when Harry said in a statement: “I’m writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become.”
If what was revealed on Friday is any indication of the “man he has become” then it is someone still carrying around an A380′s worth of emotional baggage and who is unable or unwilling to move on.
What, I would like to know, is what happened to the “inspiring, courageous, and uplifting human story” that Penguin Random House first promised readers last year? As it stands now, the whole thing looks about as much fun of an experience as being stuck next to a freshly ousted, slightly soused Liz Truss at a dinner party.
Harry’s story was always going to be one shaped and moulded by tragedy. The man has been through hell. No one can ever look at those infamous images of him and brother Prince William walking behind their mother’s coffin and not feel so deeply for that heartbroken 12-year-old boy. (Lord only knows the psychological damage that experience must have done to his very young psyche.)
And yes, Harry had a truly horrible time of it as a kid and as a young man, stuck growing up in a family who would seem to be much happier slaughtering small birds or hiding Queen Victoria’s ivory collection than expressing emotion.
The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales follow the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales in September 1997. (Photo by Anwar Hussein/WireImage)
Which is to say Harry was dealt a rubbish hand but…so are hundreds of millions of other people. Yes, there is a certain degree of exceptionalism to his suffering but it is, also, sadly, all too common. His suffering does not make him unique.
All of which leaves us here: Is Harry okay?
I don’t ask facetiously but in all seriousness. If these new book details give us the teensiest of insights into whatever is rattling around the 38-year-old royal’s head then it would seem to be something of a gloomy place indeed.
If Harry has not found peace by now, can or will he ever be? He has his own 16-loo mansion, had years of therapy, a wife he clearly loves to bits, two adorable kids, and a series of fat commercial deals to keep his days and bank account full. If this is not enough to free him from the pain of the past then can he or will he ever be free of them?
Here’s a wild, based-solely-on-speculation, rose-tinted theory (no facts were hurt in the making of this): The Harry of 2022 is a much happier chappy than we might realise, who loves his new life and starts every day with gusto! But that story? Well, he’s keeping that for book two.
Daniela Elser is a writer and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
