Spare by Prince Harry

 

Spare- Book Review

The Book was published by Random House New York in January 2023, The Book has been distributed into 3 parts and has 410 pages.

Prince Harry has shown a lot of love for his great-mother Lady Diana throughout the book, People compare her with icons and saints like Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Joan of Arc and she was a most loveable and famous lady of the world and indescribable as she was like light. Harry keeps on describing light and says that even Einstein made an effort to discover more about light, its speed, mass, and energy. Recently, astronomers rearranged their biggest telescopes, aimed them at one tiny crevice in the cosmos, and managed to catch a glimpse of one breathtaking sphere, which they named Earendel, which is old English word for Morning Star. According to the Guinness World Record 10,000 to 15000 tonnes of flowers were laid in memory of Lady Diana at Kensington Palace, St James Palace, and Buckingham Palace London UK.

Lady Diana and Prince Harry

Lady Diana toured the world many times including  Pakistan, and met orphans, Minefield-affected people and AIDS patients. He mentions the death of his dear mother Diana in France due to paparazzi(Freelance photographers who aggressively pursue celebrities for the purpose of taking candid photographs, even intruding on privacy).

Plato mentions the Allegory of cave where one man comes out of the cave and sees the realities of the world like light with his own eyes. Similarly, Prince Harry wanted to come out of the clutches of Royal Standards and Traditions.

Allegory of Cave

He has taken the reader through the streets of London where coffin of Lady Diana was taken and he walked along being young boy. He felt very sad on this day and remembers it till today. He says  if you’re in grief, even if you’re twelve years old and don’t know you are in grief, maybe especially if you don’t know, bagpipes can drive you mad. London, which surged on all sides with the largest crowd that ageless city had ever seen—twice as large as the crowds that celebrated the end of the Second World War.

The writer mentions that Eton School had high fee and compulsory boarding and it was made by Henri VI. Prince Harry in his book mentions various historical events/personalities and he has seen many places of historical significance like Magna Carta Runnymede, mentions his water bottle left over from Boer war, Hitler mouser and Machiavellian manoeuvres.

He mentions the Hardships of training, wearing big packs, and difficulties faced being Royal and remaining always under the Security umbrella. He also remembers boot camps and gas chambers. It was striking how much of our earliest training was intercut, leavened, with poetry. The glory of dying, the beauty of dying, the necessity of dying, these concepts were pounded into our heads along with the skills to avoid dying.

Prince Harry was FAC ( Forward Air Controller ) in Afghanistan, during Army service and directed Aircrafts towards target with the target indication methods. Coincidentally I also did FAC course while serving in Pakistan Army.

Writer mentions his Visit of area near North pole with brave heroes  of different countries. I could better feel the cold mentioned by Harry at area adjacent to North pole as I have served at Highest Battlefield of the world “Siachen” in year 1999 and witnessing snow bound areas, avalanches and snow storms.

His memories of Great mother Lady Diana are present through out the book and he expresses it through different ways, at different locations and times.

Harry has made good use of comparative terms like Achille’s heal, Hubble telescope and Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet. Writer mentions his  visit of   a frozen village in the clouds: Semonkong, where upon arriving they went straight into the school. Shepherd boys would come here twice a week, have a hot meal, go to a class. Harry and his friends sat in semidarkness, beside a paraffin lamp, watching a lesson, and then we sat on the ground with a dozen boys, some as young as eight. They listened to them describe their daily trek to the school. It defied belief: after twelve hours of tending their cattle and sheep, they’d walk for two hours through mountain passes just to learn maths, reading and writing.

He specially mentions his stay at Balmoral castle, a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and a residence of British Royal Family. Prince Harry writes certain quotes like “ The Past is never dead. It’s not even Past”, “Do not waste most precious thing like time”.

He mentions his private Secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton(JLP) who was very formal. Deeply calm, and slightly stiff, JLP wore shiny gold cufflinks and a gold signet

ring, symbols of his probity, constancy, and stalwart belief in a certain kind of

steadfast style. You always got the sense that, even on the morning of

Armageddon, JLP would button in these amulets before leaving the house. Prince Harry makes mention of his Pakistani Friend “Ahmed Raza Khan” who met him at Cyprus. Harry had not been afraid of death since the age of twelve.

The titles of the book is taken from his thought and treatment from Royal Family as the Willy( his elder brother) was the heir and he was Spare being sixth in line to the throne. He makes mention of his father who always calls him “ Darling Boy” and Granny his grandmother who died in 2022. She’d been the War Queen. She had lived at Buckingham Palace while Hitler’s bombs rained from the skies. (Nine direct hits on the Palace.) She had dined with wartime Churchill.

Buckingham Palace

One feels more delicate and mannered after reading this Royal biography. He visited Lady Diana’s crash site and also tried to get some Police Secret files of the case. According to Harry , last thing his Mummy saw on this earth was flashbulb. I take this book as tonic for children to have more love for their mothers. According to Prince Harry It was reported that his Mummy’s hands were folded across her chest and between them was placed a photo of me and Willy, possibly the only two men who ever truly loved her. He frankly mentions his love affairs and marriage details with his wife “Meghan Markle”. He faced difficulties while following traditions and subsequently shifting to Canada and America. He also mentions his hitches in keeping a beard.

Prince Harry also makes mention of his friends who helped him in crisis times.

There is One observation that Killing of soldiers in war should not be taken as credit and something to be proud of, here the writer could have selected better words.