On January 10, 2023, Prince Harry’s memoirs entitled “Spare” will be released and not only the British royal family should be curious about what the 38-year-old writes about. The work comprises almost 500 pages, the publisher Penguin Random House calls it “a unique book full of insights, admissions, self-reflection and the hard-won conviction that love can conquer grief forever”. The ghostwriter was Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer, who wrote the autobiography for tennis player Andre Agassi.
Originally, the book publisher had announced that Harry’s book should be published at the end of 2022, but now it won’t come until the new year. Recently there have been reports that the royal may have made changes to accommodate the death of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II. But that is probably not the case.
At least that’s what Omid Scobie, allegedly close confidant of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, claims. “There were no last-minute adjustments or post-Queen edits. The manuscript for ‘Spare’ was completed almost five months before the Queen’s death. A detail mentioned in a note at the beginning of the book,” writes Scobie in his column for the British online service “Yahoo News”.
He also clarifies that the title “Spare” was chosen by Prince Harry himself. It’s a reference to the British phrase “the heir and the spare”. The term refers to the heir to the throne – in this case Harry’s brother Prince William – and his younger successor, who could come into play in the event of the elder’s death. Scobie writes that Prince Harry was dubbed the “Spare” throughout his life by the British press and also by the Royal Family. The term would have followed him “like a shadow”, being the replacement was “one of the most formative aspects of his royal existence”.
Scobie speaks of a “derogatory term”, the “spare” has the sole task of supporting the more important heir to the throne and would be made a “scapegoat” if something did not go smoothly. “It’s a bizarre and somewhat cruel existence – the result of a system based on hereditary privilege.” As negative examples, he cites Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister, whose life was marked by drug abuse and alcoholism, and Prince Andrew. “The less said about his life, the better.”
With his book, Prince Harry now wants to make the term “spare” his own and bring his perspective to the fore. The controversy surrounding the title might not be entirely understandable for German readers: In Germany, the book will be published under the title “Reserve”.
Quelle: “Yahoo News”, Penguin Random House
