Spare is a royal tantrum of majestic proportions: the prince took swipes at people from his childhood, aired dirty linen in public, griped about his perceived financial destitution, gloated over his war games, advertised his philanthropic activities, worried about his nether regions, reminisced his pre-Meg romances, justified the wild partying, and yes, rolled weed. While he vociferously justified why he came out with the book, it is incomprehensible why he provided all this fodder as he has incessantly complained against the relentless viciousness of the media. Early in the first chapter, he referred to Wallis Simpson as "notorious" which in the scheme of things, is preposterous as the Sussexes have made Edward and Wallis's exit look like child's play.One does understand the Eton teacher's frustration when he vented:
I cannot fathom it,
Wales. We’re talking about your blood relatives – does that mean nothing to
you?
Less than nothing,
sir. It wasn’t just that I didn’t know anything about my family’s history: I
didn’t want to know anything.
The unfortunate thing is, at the end of the book, Charles's darling boy doesn't feel darling at all with his moaning and groaning. Matters which are being pushed by the House of the Sussexes - racial discrimination, mental health, tabloid reporting, and violation of privacy – were eclipsed by the prince’s whinging and the travails of his privileged life. What Spare successfully did was bolster Hilary Mantel's observation in 2013:
I used to think that
the interesting issue was whether we should have a monarchy or not. But now I
think that question is rather like, should we have pandas or not? Our current
royal family doesn’t have the difficulties in breeding that pandas do, but
pandas and royal persons alike are expensive to conserve and ill-adapted to any
modern environment. But aren’t they interesting? Aren’t they nice to look at?
Some people find them endearing; some pity them for their precarious situation;
everybody stares at them, and however airy the enclosure they inhabit, it’s
still a cage.
(PS. The infamous Henry VIII was a spare too. And look what he became when his
brother passed away and he became the heir.)
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