Prince Harry’s paperback edition of Spare came out this week. I haven’t been to a bookstore recently, but I absolutely believe that many bookstores will probably display the paperback edition prominently towards the front of the store. That’s mostly because the hardback was such a huge success, but Spare is still incredibly relevant today, 21 months after it was first published. The British media especially has not stopped whining about Spare in all of this time, and they keep trying to force this narrative that Harry “regrets” writing the book because he destroyed his relationships with his father and brother. The same father and brother who treated him like sh-t for years before he even published the book.
It’s also funny that Harry hasn’t given his critics anything new to whine about. He didn’t add any new chapters to Spare, nor did he edit out anything from the hardback edition. GB News hilariously tried to retread old news by suggesting that Harry “snubbed” King Charles and Prince William anew because he didn’t add their names to his dedication. Spare’s dedication still reads, “For Meg and Archie and Lili…and of course, my mother.” They’re so desperate to turn this paperback into a scandal, they’re positioning Spare against Mike Tindall’s new dumb book:
Mike Tindall is set to go head to head with Prince Harry tomorrow, with the former rugby player’s new book to be released on the same day as the Duke of Sussex’s paperback version of Spare hits shelves. Mike, who resides in Gloucestershire, is set to release ‘The Good, The Bad & The Rugby – Unleashed’ on Thursday.
The book – which he co-authored with Alex Payne and James Haskell – will give an insight into ‘the highs and lows their podcast, friendship and rugby.’ Mike – who is married to the Duke of Sussex’s cousin, Zara Tindall – revealed in the book he was teased by James, who once referenced Prince Andrew’s ‘car-crash’ Newsnight interview.
However, Harry is also putting out his paperback version of Spare on Thursday. The hardback version was originally released in the UK on January 10, 2023. The royal wrote that the book was ‘for Meg and Archie and Lili… And of course, my mother’. The Duke threw around many accusations about the Royal Family in Spare, along with alleging that he had a physical fight with his brother and heir to the throne, Prince William. He claimed in the book that the Prince of Wales grabbed him by the collar and threw him to the floor, while shattering a dog bowl with his back. William then allegedly declared: ‘I didn’t attack you, Harold.’
Harry also called his mother-in-law, Queen Camilla, ‘dangerous’ and a ‘villain’ in his memoir and alleged she had ‘sacrificed him’ to improve her reputation.
In Mike’s new book, he described joining the Royal Family in 2011 after marrying Zara and is thought to have made a dig at Meghan Markle. He said: ‘Believe it or not, marrying into the Royal Family was pretty easy for me. They were always nice to me, and I was always nice to them. Simple really.’
I covered Mike Tindall’s interview with the Telegraph last week – he sounded like a meathead who couldn’t wrap his head around why Meghan was treated much differently than a white rugby douche who married an untitled royal-adjacent. Anyway, it’s really been a publishing blitz over there in recent months. Tom Parker Bowles, James Middleton and now Mike Tindall, all with books out around the same time as the Spare paperback release. Not to defend them, but I doubt James, Tom and Peter really planned it out, to have their books out at the same time. Has anyone heard anything about book sales numbers? I figured that if James or Tom’s book sold well or made it onto whatever piddling British bestseller list, the Mail would have a blaring headline about it. But it’s been really quiet, right? Almost like no one really gave a sh-t. I imagine it will be the same with Tindall’s book.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.