PRINCE HARRY ‘SPARE’ MEMOIR HITS THE SHELVES

Bookshops in London opened at midnight to meet demand for Prince Harry’s memoir after it officially went on sale.

Fans queuing to buy a hardback copy described wanting to hear the story “from the horse’s mouth”. It follows the chaotic launch of Spare with multiple leaks and copies being made available in Spain last week. The booksellers opened their flagship Piccadilly branch early on Tuesday in expectation of high customer demand, as the book was published around the world in 16 languages.

The memoir is already top of the best sellers in the UK for online retailer Amazon, after days of headline-grabbing revelations from leaks ranging from how Prince Harry lost his virginity to claims that Prince Harry was attacked by his brother, Prince William.

The 410-page memoir, revealing the conflict and personal tensions inside royal palaces, shows Prince Harry’s version of growing up and then falling out with the Royal Family. But the claims in the book include that Prince Harry begged his father not re-marry, that he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan, that he took psychedelic drugs, partly in response to panic attacks, and that Meghan and Catherine had a difficult relationship.

The book paints a picture of the brothers, “Harold” and “Willy” being in conflict, a major theme in the book is the sense of unresolved grief for the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, with Prince Harry saying he had a “post-traumatic stress injury”. There are references to King Charles’ childhood teddy bear, which travelled “everywhere” with him.

Prince Harry says that the battered and bedraggled teddy bear had been a response the horrendous bullying faced by his father at school and reflected the “essential loneliness of his childhood”.

Members of the Royal Family have been omitted from the acknowledgements section of the book. Instead, the duke gives special thanks to friends in the UK “who stuck by” him “amongst the fog”, adding: “Next round’s on me.” Harry also says his therapist helped him “unravel years of unresolved trauma”.

“There are things that will still anger me, but I’m not angry anymore, because I am exactly where I am supposed to be,” he told Good Morning America.

Source: BBC