I'm taking notes and also getting down some questions
Recently there was (yet another) post somewhere out in the world about how they will soon divorce. And my first thought was: Haven't I heard this before? which moved quickly to: how many times have I heard this (through the years)? There were a number of questions raised which ... I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. One of the points which has been raised is that KC would somehow be shelling out beaucoup money to get her to go "away". That he has all this money stashed away and can pull it out at a moment's notice. But does he? He inherited a lot of "stuff" from his mother but ... isn't it a lot of tangible stuff like properties? and with that staff to maintain it and insurance. Inside said properties is art, antique furniture and other "old stuff" which may be valuable" but ... that kind of thing is subject to the whims and bank accounts of the rarified people who may be interested in it (which is not most of us in terms of bei
Comments
First!
They left because they feared for the physical safety. what they feared is not specified so I will be looking for that later
5 is waiting for PC and PW at Frog Cott for a secret meeting after the funeral of PP. They are late and when they do finally appear, appear "...grim, almost menacing". Something about how they also came to fight so was this a walk or a duel?
Pages 11
Long praise of how Balmoral was paradise except for the part where he had a smaller bedroom and less finery. this is where pictures could help as perhaps given the layout of the room there were limited ways they could make a wall to divide and give privacy. Given how much that meant to him, happy place kind of thing, it is odd that the couple didn't make more visits to it when there were invitations.
Leading into the losing of his mother. Doesn't mention him by name. He's told of her death and this is where he brings up different things (she's escaped) but there is a running theme of how he doesn't ask questions and then when he talks of how his father was not very communicative (or didn't listen this is like p 30). Complaints that his father would leave him a note on his bed complimenting him instead of saying this to him when they were face to face. Well if he isn't asking questions like why or how protocols were changed for his mother - specifically did the Q forgive his mother and allow her back into the family - then going on about his father not being communicative is kind of not seeing the plank in your own eye - I was going to use a different parallel comparison but ...
p 23
Nothing about PP offering to walk with the boys and his commentary of what they were passing as they pretty much kept their heads down. Something about how Charles Spencer was the one who argued against the boys walking. I thought it was PP. Does anyone remember?
p 24
The funeral. The song. The speech by Charles Spencer where he attacks everyone (not just the paps but the BRF?) for stalking her. nothing about the promise to be there for the boys.
In her hands, in the casket, was a photo of the two boys which his comment that they were the only men who loved her or loved her the most. This is where he cries for the first time and almost sounds sad that he did.
p 27
The X box for his birthday which is brought to him by Aunt Sarah who tells him that his mother had purchased it for him in Paris. IDK. Maybe she did. Or maybe he was told that because they knew he loved video games and that they were trying to be kind?
Ludow - where he talks about how the matrons he thought he would marry and spoke of how they made fun of one whom he didn't like and she had physical difficulties which were mocked. not a good look dude
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Well, just when i think that the already-highlighted passages from the book SPARE must be the worst on offer, here comes this grotesque Oedipus Complex passage, and as the original poster wrote, a Freudian nightmare to boot.
Please, Nutties, gird your loins for this awful, toe-curling passage, then click the link to hear Harry read it out loud to us, himself. Ughhh.
Prince & Princess of Wales @TribesBritannia 2h
When Harry opened the tube of cream to apply to his penis, the smell took him back to his mother, who he felt was in the room as he rubbed it on his todger.
There is so much wrong with this audio passage I just can’t even begin to unravel it.
Link: https://twitter.com/TribesBritannia/status/1613264309064290304?s=20&t=hIOLnGdu5ElCz2OT5jsdmA
XBox did not exist at the time of Diana's death. It did not appear for like 4 years.
From link https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/why-prince-philip-walked-with-william-and-harry-at-princess-dianas-funeral/OWKPM6QMNE6AAKYSG7ORVFIGXI/
"...it has been revealed why Prince Philip walked with his grandsons following the death of their mother.
The Duke of Edinburgh was extremely concerned about the emotional wellbeing of his young grandsons during preparations for Diana's funeral in 1997.
A former government relations director told the UK's Evening Standard the family were in conversation about Diana's funeral plans when suddenly Prince Philip spoke.
"We were all talking about how William and Harry should be involved and suddenly came Prince Philip's voice. We hadn't heard from him before, but he was really anguished.
"It's about the boys,' he cried. 'They've lost their mother.'"
The night before the funeral, Philip went one step further, turning to his grandsons and saying "I'll walk if you walk".
In an interview with ITV following Philip's death, Princess Anne recalled how her father helped William and Harry deal with their grief.
"I seem to remember them saying that, in fact, it was a question of, 'If you'll do it, I'll do it,'" she told ITV.
"That was him as a grandfather ... 'If that's what you want to do and if you want me to be there, I will be there.'"
- end snip -
https://twitter.com/NaomiSky_15/status/1613269971941093377
rented an entire park where you slide down snow covered hills on an inner tube for $14k (more like $10k US)
They'll be doing porn soon at the rate they're sinking.
He talks about how his mind works and organizes itself. A long song and dance about how he can describe places he's been, not good on dates (specifically mentions the 90's dob is 09/18/1984 so he enters it at 6 and leaves it 16, Diana passes just before his 13th birthday), why does it do it this way - genes? experiences which include trama or that he was/is rebelling as what he describes as "forced nomadic existence."? Could it be that actually the world is a maze and this is how you create a map to figure out where you are in it?
(now the meat)
"Whatever the cause, my memory is my memory, it does what it does, gathers and curates as it sees fit, and there's just as much truth in what I remember and how I remember it as there is in so-called objective facts. Things like chronology and cause-and-effect are often just fables we tell ourselves about the past." and then he goes into the Faulkner quote about the pastis not the past.
Help me out.
I read this as a way to absolve him from any thing which can be proven to be contradictory to a provable fact (maybe like the Xbox didn't exist yet). And, that his truth is as valid as other truths which can be viewed at a fable and therefore not really true but you are welcome to believe that if you want. Thoughts?
A forced nomadic existence? Really? Forgive me, I thought PP wrote that definition when he lived it.
I agree with him that the world is a maze. You realize that other families are very different than yours when you visit them and you don't see their mother tossing plates and silver at the father at the dinner table (my mother did not do this I must state - this is to give an idea of how what you think of as normal is not always. Mom did other things). That's part of life - figuring out the maze and that sometimes we need a therapist to help us figure out the map, where we are and, where we want to be plus how to get there.
So far, nothing about the idea of therapy might be an idea post divorce/not yet passed.
What is kind of amusing is how well he like St. Tropez until her friend showed up, handed her a fancy diamond bracelet and had hearts coming out of his eyes. Sometimes the kids can see more clearly than the adults.
Leading up to the suspicions of Camilla. He didn't really but PW might have because he was older. He claims that Diana was wrong, 5 in the marriage (PC, D, PW, PH and C). um, no kid. 5 maybe in the family - note: you didn't count your mother also playing around too) - but when it comes to marriage, it is adults who participate in it (which is why we try to have not below a certain age requirements in many countries)
p 40
So now they have split and the meeting of Camilla. PW (eh) and he describes it as close your eyes for an injection. sigh. I am a little shocked he didn't mention the old chestnut of close your eyes and think of England. ahem.
p 40 continued
He's bored (and implies she may be as well be at the first meeting, doesn't remember what they discussed but it might have been horses).
(insert story about how his father was wimpy) and then>
The two princes agree that they will accept her, accept her into the family even but ... he isn't allowed to marry her (their condition). And that then she plotted her way into getting the wedding.
Excuse me. When do children get to impose conditions for their parents to obey? Who are you to tell a parent what they can and cannot do, who they can and cannot have in their life (short of someone who legally should not be allowed near children)? Or that they should not be allowed a full measure of how they might view happiness? The Queen, otoh, is an adult, not talking to him as a mother but as the institutional monarchy has history behind her when she speaks to him.
he describes it as close your eyes for an injection.
The trip to South Africa, Spice Girls and meet Mandela. All that and a solo trip with his dad without his brother. But it was not not a vacation but a working trip and he was part of the work.
Rake's Drift - he describes it now as an "...outgrowth of imperialism, colonialism, nationalism - in short, theft." He was sent to some local historian who did talk about then what was not the PC view of the situation. what is interesting is that 5 was heavy into the romance of the British view of the situation, this was a lecture he said he paid attention to (as opposed to many he had not) but it didn't seem to change his world view.
More Ludlow
Doesn't name the teacher who used a hard cover Bible as a paddle. Does name a teacher who allowed him to coast in music lessons and then names a teacher who didn't (and how he confronted that teacher who felt he should have a good handle on the British monarchy historically with all the different family trees). He then ties in the teacher making peace of sorts with "...Magna Carta style." by giving him a ruler with all the different kings historically. pay attention to that gift
Pick your friends well. They do get into trouble together - think stealing strawberries from a nearby farm at night.
A lot of unkind things about people at the school. Down right mean. One matron (named) not one of the ones he thought he wanted to marry, had difficulty walking and he/they would mimic her.
Angela, tiara gate, is supposed to be very good at placing negative stories about others appears to be at the behest of the Queen.
And a visit to Graceland has the interior described as something about the decorator must have been on
acid (and you know this - how?
Thank you so much.
Boarding school: I went to boarding school from a very young age, in a different country, and was dreadfully homesick (I was a timid child very attached to my mother, who I found out later cried all the way home when they dropped me off). I also had older siblings at the school and no way was I allowed to hang out with them. I remember when I moved to the senior dining room and my sister as a senior was allowed to pick a couple of juniors to be at her table - she did not pick me, term after term, and I so very much wanted her to pick me!
I tell you all this because his experience with his brother at Eton was not out of the ordinary at all. At boarding school you hang out with your peers, not your older siblings. People grow up and relationships with siblings change as you grow up and your world expands - this is normal. Eton is a place where many boys would have had siblings at the school - did he see his peers hanging out with their older siblings? It did not happen at my school, and I am sure it did not happen at Eton.
His problem seems to be one of a sense of entitlement for special treatment. The whole Megxit disaster seems to have been infused with this - they wanted special treatment and to do whatever they wanted to, and threw epic tantrums when people said no. They are spoilt brats, not mature adults, and I am not fooled by the posh accent or royal training from him or the various games she plays.
Sigh.
Technical problem
Sometimes the system determines that a post someone wrote is spam and puts it into the spam folder before a moderator gets a chance to even look at it.
This isn't a big deal to check the folder to see if something should be published periodically.
The real problem is not that it cannot be marked as not spam/please publish it now for all to read but that if that action is taken, then it does not now send a copy to everyone who is having a copy sent to their email address. Something about the system doesn't cue it to send that out automatically.
I have seen this recently with Hilkari, just now with Magatha and even myself (most recently the rule list for this particular post and once in a while at other times but not most of the time). I don't understand this myself (why this time when the rule list passes without a hitch 98% of the time).
I wondered about the Nando’s
he sent security for.
Supposedly she went into
labour in the middle of the night,
miraculous birth at 5.35 am?
back home at frogwarts by noon?
I checked Nando’s website,
there is one on Portland Street,
all London branch opening hours
11.30 am - 10 pm?
Not sure if they differed
prior to covid?
Too much gas as he was chewing
on her bouncing purple ball.
After burp.
This is a bookshop in Leeds - I have noticed a few other posts where the bookshop/retailer has had a lot of fun in how they didplay the books (which books to artfully display with it). One shop put the books in a rack next to shelves filled with bumper packs of disposable nappies!
I find this quite sad and think this is his story without input from TBW.
When he describes her first visiting him at Nott Cott, he claims not to know who lived there before and is very negative about the place. Did someone ekse craft the later chapters?
How could the ghostwriter and publisher let him do this to himself? That defence that a memoir is 'personal recollections', that memory is not accurate (true) and that a memoir is not supposed to be factual is BS. When I worked as an editor, I would never had let an author hang themselves out to dry in such an appalling way.
It strikes me that he was very lonely and did not know how to live alone without resorting to drink, drugs and any company he could find (hence he was caught in TBW's web). He was just not busy enough. He did not have the wide range of outdoor interests like his grandfather, which would have perhaps suited someone with no interest in culture or reading (his grandfather loved reading) and did not have a trusted private club where be could meet friends that were acceptable to royals.
As for Oprah ... remember the book A Million Little Pieces, or something like that about the lide of a drug addict? The author wrote a memoir (but I think he called it an autobiography) and she had a major success in interviewing him and had his book featured for her book club. When it was revealed to be mostly fiction, she had him back on the show and humiliated him, and booted his book from her book club. She was wise not to interview Hapless for his memoir (yet) but was a hypocrite in defending the interview she did do.
And diwn the rabbit hole we go ...
read your post about boarding school and it made me sad. as a mom to this day it still hurts my heart to know my daughter was homesick at summer camp and it was only two weeks 10 years ago. i hate the idea that kids are hurting like that.
When I read his complaints about Nott Cott I had steam coming out of my ears. The home was designed by Christopher Wren, whose celebrated work as an architect included St. Paul’s Cathedral and many other historically significant buildings. I imagine there are thousands of people who would feel honored to call the cottage home.
His comment was that interior decorator must have been on acid to which my question is: How would you know what being on acid looks like is like kiddo?
Thank you for subjecting yourself to the torment of reading the book. I hope you have your therapist on speed dial like Harold.
The half dozen or so reviews I’ve read of Spare all describe it as being like two books in one: the first half a heartfelt and relatively affecting account of dealing with the trauma of losing his mother; the second a kamikaze attack on his family. Most of the reviewers think that Frozen Ginger Nuts did far more damage to himself in his TV interviews than with the book.
Eton. Did you know that cigarettes are a gateway for pot? Apparently it is an easy in if you feel you are living on "autopilot", not in touch with your feelings, don't have the friends you used to have around (support system) and your brother has clearly stated that you are not to even attempt to be around him.
Corridor Cricket - playing sports indoors and refusing to move the game to another space because everyone else was trying to study and do their homework.
And then there was the shaved head incident where they were bored and convinced him that shaving his head was an idea. He went along with it (despite misgivings & he wanted to fit in) and was horrified of the outcome (laughter). A trip to his brother was much of the same (laughter) not helping supportive comments in his pain. No photos exist (apparently) but it did get public awareness through a leak (some friends, eh?).
Also a rant about his broken thumb labeled as accident a scant year after his mother "...allegedly..." had met her death in an accident (her death and his broken bone paired word wise was not ok by him - what their word choice should have been was not included). Continued rant about feelings of being treated as a puppet, pulled out, talked about if he wasn't human and it was all ok because he was royal and they could do that to royals.
page 47
The rant is continues with the outrage that despite his lack of success in schooling he describes the article as "...a master class in illiteracy..."
What is interesting he must have said something to his father (who listened, who responded, who tried to have the palace backing to help) by making a formal complaint to the paper (who basically laughed in their direction). A point for Dad if anyone is keeping score.
Also, take note that he is unaware that not everyone appreciates his behavior or that when called on it, he routinely blocks that out. Or that he doesn't always choose his friends wisely or maybe it is that he can be swayed by others to do things he doesn't really want to do but he does do them anyway.
on being labeled the naughty one
"I didn't want to be naughty. I wanted to be noble. I wanted to be good, work hard, grow up and do something meaningful with my days. But every sin, every misstep, every setback, triggered the same tired label, and the same public condemnations and thereby reinforced the conventional wisdom that I was innately naughty."
I think he really feels this.
What we don't really see or read about is how he was trying (or people were trying) to help him change, make better decisions. He has to want it. He has to be willing to work at it and knows that you will have moments when you fail or come close to failing (why they have sponsors in AA - to help through the I'm about to fail moments). Change doesn't happen because everyone else around you wants you to change.
Side observation: does not acknowledge things like smoking (anything), not allowing others to study in their own room, stealing strawberries, mocking people with disabilities should be apologized for. Maybe he does that at the end of the book when he wakes up and realizes other people can be bruised by him but he doesn't do this at this point in the book. Despite the I want to be good message, we don't get the as part of being an adult, I need to recognize that I have been a jerk to people. And I'm sorry about that (especially because he keeps naming names).
The other thing is that on some level he was getting some positive reinforcement from people when they learned of his antics. People repeat behaviors which get them what they want from others. Bad behavior does get noticed and does give you attention (especially if you are feeling ignored). You have to want (back to self driven wants) to have other reinforcements more than being acknowledged for being naughty.
This is a nice little piece of him which won't get play in the public area because all the other stuff is flashy while this is not.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6318537429112
That is not just a boarding school thing. My siblings trailed behind me as well (public school) and one was really highly irritated about someone mentioning that if they were like me, all these wonderful things and that was so not the right thing to say to that one.
I don't think that he counts them as people. They are employees and therefore inferior.
I remember a documentary (before he met TBW?) where the two brothers sat and watched videos of Diana and looked at photos of her. I think he was in therapy at the time because his brother urged him to get help. I don't think that is mentioned in the book, but maybe it is.
We get into how PC was into Shakespeare, it is part of the grand history of Great Britain, and he (5) who tries to avoid books and reading when possible chooses not to read one of the romances like Much Ado but instead picks Hamlet with the royal murder/love the villain plot and then decides it's not for him. He visits his father at Highgrove and is "tortured" by being dragged to Shakespeare plays where he either doesn't understand the English or when he does, it resonates somehow back to losing his mother.
As active as he portrays himself, I wonder if it is more than just difficulty understanding the play, not following the plot, an undercurrent about how this was not his thing because it is more his father's thing but actually just sitting fairly motionless instead of constantly being in motion. His father is trying to do something with him at least. His father could have left him at home instead of making an effort to ensure he could join his father.
p 49
Falls in love with the book Of Mice and Men, focuses on similarities with his life with his brother but is unable to share this insight with said brother because he's not to be in contact with PW.
Why he could not do this at some point in time after reading the book instead of immediately is unclear.
p 50
Return to Africa but this time with Marko (fond memories of the guy), Tiggy (which he makes a point about how his mother was jealous of her and feared Tiggy would replace her. And that is how it did play out because of Diana's death).
It is unclear what all they were doing there. Was it a hunting trip or just look at the animals. Guns were probably around just in case but that is not mentioned as an option in the leopard story.
p 51
Bush TV is what they call watching a fire. He told them that changing the channel is when you add a log. Going to sleep while listening to adults drink and laugh was very comforting to him.
I think most of us think of camp fires the same way.
p 52 Some reference to something happening. Marco, empty coffin, 8 Welch guards but Marco not in the box and I have no clue what this refers to at this point in the reading.
p 53
visited by the leopard. He tries to prank Marko, the leopard wanders through camp just minutes after he walked the same path. He views it as a message from his mother while everyone else is thinking about the press if he had been attacked.
(pay attention here because this is one of those dangling threads)
He talks about how they are taught to have a "buffer zone" which is space between between you and anything or everything. This must have space rule applied to family as well.
In Africa, that rule was broken by all the people around him. And he loved it.
Well, well, well. You would think that if he knows this rule and how it extends to between family members, he might have mentioned it to * before she met either PW or Katherine. Nor does he mention that his mother was very touchy feely with the boys which contradicts the whole everyone in the older generation followed this.
He admits that he and Henners acquired liquor underage recently, mentions swiping some from Tiggy as well. He smells pot and wants some too. He tells them of how he is experienced in smoking it. (Remember that in he went from cigs to pot at Eton.) They give him basil to smoke.
Um, did anyone let his father know that 5 was dabbling and seeking it on this trip to put it mildly? Or notice his drinking? This is spring 1999 so he's 14 1/2.
Was it mean to give him basil? maybe? do I think that given a chance, he would have pulled that on his brother to pass it on? yeah.
p 56
Family friends Hugh and Emelie with 4 boys who are together a lot. The 4 brothers find 5's fighting style to be over the top. The 6 boys go from physical fights to using fireworks near one of the others, BB guns. escalation of violence sort of unchecked?
p 58
"when there were no other boys around, no common enemies, Willy and I would turn on each other." He then goes on to mention an incident where PW is kicked out of the car by PC and PW has to ride in the follow car (seatbelts would always in use "...after Mummy's disappearance.". He observes his brother "...the future King of England, plotting revenge."
There does seem to be quite a bit of not mentioning his brother in any positive light. In this case we get the future associated with plotting revenge. On Reddit, there was a comment about how calling his brother Willy (instead of Wills or William) was a devaluing move by calling his brother by the same word used to a man's external sex organ.
What strikes me is that he comes across as a nasty narc - completely self-absorbed, no empathy for others but can be very charming (and the royal upbringing helped with the latter).
Does he ever show concern for anyone else but himself and TBW?
Blooding - traditional dabbing of the blood from a kill (the first one with Tiggy) or at least the first major one (stalking red deer at Balmoral where he got his head shoved in the just dead deer after opening of the body). Not allowed to wipe your face clean either. You have to let your face dry that way.
p 61
Conflicting feeling about going skiing at Klosters. PW didn't want to go because he didn't want to do the meet the media on the wall who had questions for them and because Diana didn't like it after PC had had a close call with death. More about the belief she ran away to hide from them (how do I resolve the conflict of loving skiing and knowing you don't like it when I see you). He says that PW thought that too for a while but decided it was not true. 5 was thinking more about how she had told them of the desire to run away and that she wouldn't just leave them.
p 62/63
Summer 2001 He is 16 and is driving the private roads of Balmoral. Family dinner with his grandparents and the Queen Mother whom he calls Gan-Gan. She is the only one who notices that he is drinking alcohol. He later regrets not asking her about her life, the people who were in it who are now long gone.
p 65
9/11 and then he's 17.
p 66
4 years after her death, he's still dreaming that his mother will show up that day after carefully being costumed to slip past people and surprise him. Concluding with the idea that until he had proof of her death, she was somewhere out there. What proof he was looking for is unclear.
Still at Eton and smoking pot. "I know this is bad behavior. I knew it was wrong." Long soliloquy about this behavior and they all break the vow they will stop for the term by the next night.
Commenting that seeing the police outside on the school grounds made him feel "caged" while beyond that point was peace. A riff (after smoking) on seeing a fox which was some sense of kinship, a message sent by an unknown sender.
p 68
Club H H is for Highgrove. Down in the cellar where you had to pass assorted wines, valuable gifts to the monarchy that no one really wanted or knew what to do with to get to their room. Kind of lux as it had a Persian rug, dartboard, stereo and some furniture. It also had a nice vent so they could sometimes smell flowers from the garden. No drugs he claims but alcohol (some "creative borrowing"). Pw, 5 and other friends would sneak out to a nearby pub, drink and then go back to Club H and drink some more. This is still 2001 and he is 17.
p 69
PW tries to talk to him about Diana but gets shut out by 5.
Dec 2001
Marko reappears and they met to discuss claims by a tab journo that 5 is doing drugs. He denies it. Complete lies despite claims by them that they had evidence. He doesn't accuse the writer of being really named Ahab but the message is clear that he felt they were hunting him and would not stop until they were successful. And they now have Marko in their sights as well.
p 71
Some palace spin doctor, who worked for PC (C is not married yet) that they will work a deal where the tabs got 5 and from now on the tabs would not print anything negative about PC and C. Or so that is what he is told - source Marko.
Jan 2002, the drug story breaks and it is all lies according to 5. For example, a photo of him visiting (with Marko) a rehab clinic was months old and he was there on official BRF visit.
p 72
PC and his future stepmother colluding against him. PW is slightly sympathetic but has more a this is royal life attitude.
5 pages before we are reading, not for the first time either, about him smoking weed and yet his claims are all about being embarrassed because the claims in the tabloid that he does drugs are all lies.
4 years after her death, he's still dreaming that his mother will show up that day after carefully being costumed to slip past people and surprise him. Concluding with the idea that until he had proof of her death, she was somewhere out there. What proof he was looking for is unclear.
I remember when I was in elementary school, wishing that my biological dad would come rescue me from my stepdad. Even at that age, I knew it wasn't going to happen. I could tell the difference between fantasy and reality. I'm not sure that he is yet capable of making that distinction.
5 pages before we are reading, not for the first time either, about him smoking weed and yet his claims are all about being embarrassed because the claims in the tabloid that he does drugs are all lies.
"I did lots of drugs!" and "The tabloids are lying about me using drugs!" is just a teensy bit contradictory.
Why in the world would PC and Camilla be 'colluding' against him? It sounds as though maybe cannabis psychosis.*
*Cannabis Induced Psychosis - Symptoms, Causes, and How to Treat It
Typically, marijuana-induced symptoms emerge without much warning. But there can be some indications, which are defined as a pre-psychosis or early psychosis. Some of the signs are: Depression, Anxiety, Paranoia, Withdrawal, Inappropriately strong emotional reactions, Emotional indifference, Inability to formulate logical speech. Seems to me that Henry hits every one of the symptoms.
But some of the logic would be that this is only one tabloid supposedly agreeing to this and not everyone else. So that's a problem.
And that he actually was doing drugs. And this was not news to Marko several years ago.
Sometimes kids (being kids before you layer in doing drugs) aren't the smart criminal that they'd like to think they are. Was all the tabloid information received legally - back then, probably not. It will be interesting to see when and how the phone hacking is explained (given that it was tabloid driven). Given that he won't even acknowledge that author of the release of 5 is a druggie by name and he's so willing to name others elsewhere ... isn't that kind of odd in a book about settling scores.
The cocaine saga is coming up.
Losing (g)Aunt Margo and the QM. Somehow an important fact is that he only shares 12.4% DNA with AM. He knew the basics of her life story. "She could kill a houseplant with one scowl." They kind of avoided each other until she showed her true feelings about him at Christmas one year when she gave him a biro (ball point pen) inside a fish.
I seem to remember that Diana blew her first Christmas with the family by giving very un-gag gifts (cashmere sweaters comes to mind). IDK. Isn't there something about a message from the mafia about fish in paper? How dramatic to focus on this gift one time?
soliloquy about how they had a lot of similar roles and technically should have been closer.
p 74
People (AM and QM) die. The Koh-i-Noor great diamond he describes as "'acquired'" and "stolen". Only women get to wear it (did not know).
p 75
The Golden Jubilee is in full swing. TQ does not display emotions so she shows great control.
p 76
Accusations of 5 using coke. Source willing to deep 6 the photo(s) IF 5 is willing to listen to a lecture by source about why this is not good. A rant by 5 that this is again a lie and that to listen to some lecture would mean that he actually is guilty. "I am not submitting myself to blackmail."
(please take a deep breath)
He admits he recently has tried it but will not admit this to the courtier. His fears become screwing up his grandmother's golden jubilee with this weighing on him. He is still 17. Fun fact: the carriage she used (gold) predates the Revolutionary War by 13 years. (did not know).
Super party with musicians and singers: Brian May and Paul McCartney.
p 78
At this, he wanted to hug his grandmother but chose not to. She was bebopping in her seat to the music. Insert riff about how his mother once tried to hug TQ and TQ dodged in away as a good sport player. And, doubts his father ever hugged his mother.
p 79
Doesn't remember which house but does remember talking with PC about his post Eton future. Fondue Hut - as a joke but also was turned down for ski instructor or safari guide by his dad. "Part of me wanted to drop out, disappear-as Mummy did." Eventually the Army.
Interesting point made that seems to reappear generationally
He says that PC (unnamed source) encouraged not to work, especially as it might overshadow or outshine his mother as Queen. PC fought against that, found things he liked to do (reminds me of that show about how PP found things to get involved in), and that "He wanted that for me."
nice. nice compliment about his father. AND one of the guys who allegedly viewed 5 as expendable, a hindrance to the future plans with Camilla, yada, want to help his son find his own way. And, doesn't try to force him to go the higher education route.
p 80
Gap year plans with Marko. 1/2 Australia. 1/2 something with Aids because of Diana. Marko finds Losotho. Sees Henners whose gap year is to be in Uganda and then into the Army.
p 81
Fall 2002 Henners is killed in a car accident (car hits tree and neither is wearing a seat belt).
sigh. It is another person who was a support (perhaps not the one best to try to keep 5 on the straight and narrow) that he lost no less in a similar fashion as his mother. What is clear (according to 5) is that it was actually at supposed to be 20 mph. They were on their way to get a replacement stereo for a party going on. What is not clear is anything about the party. Very sad for him.
How to leave Eton in your rearview mirror
Apparently they have a requirement that you must participate in a play, end of year plays are the biggest deal. Spring 2003
The play: Much Ado About Nothing and he is cast as Conrade (who might have a drinking issue)
He views this (despite being told to just have fun with the part) as a potential tabloid headline of type casting (did they? or was this in his head?). IDK, not certain.
What is nice is that he figured out some things other than alcohol was not the focus of the part:
"Loyal but immoral. Full of advise, but essentially a follower."
He gets into this role. And acting.
"Being royal, it turned out, wasn't all that far from being on stage. Acting is acting, no matter the context."
I almost feel sorry for Hapless. Ghostwriter and publisher did not do basic fact checking and just took the money and now defend themselves with nonsense about 'his truth'. But maybe this is karma in action. If he was decent and had integrity then he would seek out and be drawn to people the same.
https://www.hcahealthcare.co.uk/for-patients-and-visitors/patient-stories/rebeccas-water-birth
The post includes this tidbit:
Rebecca knew that if she decided on a water birth, she wouldn't have the option of an epidural during labour. Instead, she looked into alternative pain relief methods, including hypnobirthing.
So, that birthing story in the book is as fishy as 'H,' pun intended.
Re: Boarding schools, & schools in general. Schools have tried to be more supportive of children in recent years, but in the past they may have considered themselves to be providing a 'toughening up' experience. An old friend of mine was sent to boarding school at age six when her UK military father was posted to India. This was many years ago, & she, a sensitive & affectionate person, was very unhappy. You have my sympathy @Sandie.
Children can be a bit judgemental, & value toughness, as they are all so vulnerable. I know in my own experience, & my children's, protection from an older sibling or even family would have made the other children resentful. Obviously, families pulled strings for their kids behind the scenes (as the RF probably did), but if the school community found out about it, the child was ostracized in subtle ways by the other kids & their families. Some actor whose school played rugby against Eton when William was there has said all of the boys in his school tried to hit William as hard as possible in games, just to be able to say they had sacked the future king of England.
DM Palace Confidential ... at the end they show a collage of the two brothers through the years. I found that immensely sad to watch.
Upset at a title "Prince Thicko" which the only references in google are current day and usually mentions the book.
Accusations of him cheating in an art class. Supposedly some art teacher had proof which he says was not proof. He is bitter at not being allowed to respond to this, clear his name. He appears embarrassed that people in the family are reading this (implies palace supplied the papers for them). PC not consoling as he tells his son that "...I don't read that.". PC is a real renaissance guy who reads and can talk about Shakespeare to climate change (specific points made in the book).
Did the Queen really take time out to read this stuff? So, about his father - I could believe that PC doesn't waste time reading a lot of that "gossip stuff" but ... so ... if he really doesn't care a lot about gossip or tabloid articles, why would he be worried about how * or * and 5 will be outshining him or Camilla or the pair of them? To me, this undercuts that argument. And, when you are king, they will pay attention to you and anyone would be hard pressed to consistently outshine the king [so why worry now, just play the long game because he's not exactly wishing his mother (the Queen) would die].
Toolombilla 40K acres - Australia for first half of gap year, Noel, Annie (she was a flatmate of Diana), their kids Nikki, Eusti and George (same age, worked with mostly while there).
Still had his guards there, complains of heat and mosquitoes.
Annie tries to talk to him about Diana but he shuts her down.
p 86
This was not a sissy place. Work started long before dawn and they would go to bed at 8:30. 7 days a week. He is no longer afraid of the dark. He's learned new vocabulary (really, ja'think? Eton had different slang than Ludlow and they were closer geographically). Refuses to castrate bulls but doesn't explain why.
p 88, 89
Nicknamed Spike after an echidna at the zoo because his hair was irreversible altered by the trim at Eton. "Identity had always been problematic."
Mail was addressed: ATT: HRH Prince Henry of Wales. During this time, he was updated on memos about the first Paul Burrell book. He wants to come home but is talked out of it. They (not him as he would have had a scorcher to tell PB) inquiring about a meeting to discuss, figure out motive and so on. PB's response was public and about wanting to give them (unspecified) a piece of his mind. 5 interprets this as there will be a meeting but there never was and therefore he concludes that the palace stopped it. unclear but probably a meeting because that would violate the family motto sort of and that although they might be able to shut down the book being sold in the realm, overseas was not controllable.
A teacher assists him with an art project that will be graded for his year-end mark. Someone senior asked her to do so. The media somehow find out and accuse him of cheating and the teacher is fired. The teacher sues the school for unfair dismissal and wins her case.
My impression is that she assisted him in finishing the project to meet a deadline and not that she actually did all the work for him. If he did not meet the deadline he would have failed, and no one wanted that.
I think it very sad that after all the therapy he remembers this with such bitterness and anger and holds such a terrific grudge, and blames everything on the media, rather than becoming a wiser and better person because of it. And there seems to be no gratitude for what the teacher and school did for him.
It takes strength of character to look back and say you made a mistake or you wish you had not said or done something ... and then let it go and really try hard to not make the same mistake again.
His mistake in this case was not finishing a project so a teacher had to help him do so - instead of him being conscientious or pushing beyond comfort to do what he found difficult or not interesting.
He claims that he cut a lot out of the book about his brother and father and that the original draft was twice as long. He claims he cut out content so that a reconciliation is possible because his father and brother would never forgive him if he published it all.
He claims he is saving the monarchy by breaking the relationship between the monarchy and the media. When he has achieved that goal, him and his wife will then return.
This is insanity. Revealing personal conversations that supposedly happened feeds the media circus, so he is not making sense. Even publishing his so-called version of events is what is feeding the media circus. His grandiose view of himself is rather disturbing.
Why write the stuff in the first place, just to then cut it? No, this comes across as a threat to his family. If they continue to not respond, he will continue acting out and threatening, to get attention. If they respond, they are giving into blackmail and letting two very destructive and nasty people take control.
December 2003, people start trying to get onto the farm. "Paps are like ants. There never is just one." So he leaves (after 9 weeks) but describes it as "...the best weeks of my life so far."
Returns to London, goes clubbing and meets a page three girl (young, topless in Robert Murdock's The Sun. Hides wearing a cap, has his body guard and as they are in the car leaving, some pap in a car hits their car while taking photos. He is unhappy that the news the next day is all about him meeting her instead of almost being killed.
No, he doesn't refer to his uncle Andrew and Koo or in some way talks about parallel behavior by spares.
I also want to point out how much the paps are dehumanized. They are not human. They should not be doing this job (really it should not exist). And, that opinion is so deep that it makes the Grand Canyon seem like a stream on the surface of the earth.
Part 1
Prince Harry’s book is odd. There’s even something half-mad about it.
He opens with a dramatic meeting at Frogmore, his former mansion on the grounds of Windsor. It is just after the death of Prince Philip, Harry’s paternal grandfather. For months Harry has been estranged from his father, Charles, and his brother, William—a “full-scale public rupture.” Harry has flown in from America and requested a meeting. The day is overcast, chilly. Charles and William arrive late looking “grim, almost menacing,” and “tightly aligned.” “They’d come ready for a fight.” Harry is tongue-tied, vulnerable, leaves heartbroken. “I wanted peace. I wanted it more than anything.”
You feel such sympathy. What could have driven them so far apart? Why are Charles and William so cold? Then you realize, wait—Philip died just a month after the Oprah interview in which Harry rather coolly portrayed his family as remote and hapless puppets and implied they were racist.
Harry forgets, in the opening, to tell us that part. But you can see how it might have left Charles and William a little indignant.
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This is the book’s great flaw, that Harry doesn’t always play it straight, that he thinks “my truth” is as good as the truth. There are other flaws, and they grate. There’s a heightened-ness to his language—he never leaves a place; he flees it “in fear for our sanity and physical safety.” He often finds his wife “sobbing uncontrollably” on the floor and the stairs, mostly over what he fails to realize are trivial things. He is grandiose: “My mother was a princess, named after a goddess.” “How would I be remembered by history? For the headlines? Or for who I actually was?” Lord, he was an attractive man fifth in line for a largely ceremonial European throne; it would hardly remember him at all. (Unless he wrote a scalding book and destabilized the monarchy!) He repeatedly points out that he’s a Windsor and of royal blood. His title means a lot to him. He is exhibitionistic: “My penis was oscillating between extremely sensitive and borderline traumatized.” (Frostbite.)
There are gaps in his knowledge-base that wouldn’t be irritating if he weren’t intent on establishing that he’s giving you the high-class rarefied inside dope. “Never complain, never explain” has been an expression of the old American upper class since forever, and I’m sure the British one too. It isn’t special to the Windsors. “An heir and a spare” is old Fleet Street tabloidese. It doesn’t mean, as he suggested on book tour, he was bred for body parts.
Famous families often have internal communication problems. The children of those families learn much of what they know from the many books written about the clan. They internalize and repeat observations and stories that aren’t quite right but are now given their insider imprimatur.
Harry’s anecdotes tend to undermine the institution of the monarchy. When he was a teenager Britain’s biggest tabloid told the palace it had evidence he was doing drugs. In fact, as Harry tells us candidly, he did do drugs when he was young. The palace, no doubt knowing this, opted to “play ball” with the newspaper and not deny all aspects of the story. This made Harry feel thrown under the bus.
His father, he believes, used him as a “sacrifice,” to appease a powerful editor and bolster his own sagging reputation. “No more the unfaithful husband, Pa would now be presented to the world as the harried single dad coping with a drug-addled child.” He reports Charles and his wife, Camilla, were jealous of William and Kate’s “drawing attention away from them.” His stories of jealousy sound like projection. But they also make the book feel less like “Clown Turns on Circus” than something more deadly, especially just before Charles’s coronation this May.
Harry accuses the tabloids of violating his privacy, and no doubt they often did. What is almost unbelievable is that he is so unmoored and destabilized by this inevitable aspect of fame, especially royal fame. He implies he left Britain primarily because of the newspapers and their criticism of his wife.
But the odd, half-mad thing about this book is that in it he violates his own privacy, and that of others, more than Fleet Street ever could.
He is careful throughout to say he is telling his story in order to help others, those who’ve struggled with mental illness or been traumatized by war. It is hard to know another person’s motives; it can be hard to know your own. But I don’t think this book is about others. I think it’s about his own very human desire for revenge, to hurt those who’ve hurt him. And to become secure in a certain amount of wealth. And to show his family and Fleet Street that their favorite ginger-haired flake could make his own way, set up his own palace, break free, fly his own standard, become the duke of Netflix. This book is classic Fredo: “I can handle things. I’m smart. Not like everybody says, like dumb, I’m smart and I want respect!”
It is all so contradictory. He says he wants reconciliation but writes things that alienate, he says he reveres the monarchy and isn’t trying to bring it down but he has gone beyond removing bricks from the facade and seems to be going at the bearing walls.
I close with a thought on privacy. Prince Harry violates his own. He tells us too much about himself and others.
Once there was a reigning personal style of public reticence about private pain. You didn’t share it with everybody, and you didn’t use it for advantage or as a weapon: I have known pain, you must bow before me. The forces of modernity have washed away the old boundary between public and private. It isn’t good. It’s making us less human even as we claim to be more sensitive.
But fully mature people still have a sense of their own privacy, they keep to themselves what is properly kept to oneself. Privacy isn’t some relic of the pre-tech past, as I said once, it is connected to personhood. It has to do with intimate things—the inner workings of your head and heart, of your soul. You don’t just give those things away. Your deepest thoughts and experiences are yours, held by you; they are part of your history. They are part of your dignity. You share them as a mark of trust. This is true intimacy, not phony intimacy but the real thing.
If you tell all the strangers your secrets what do you tell your intimates?
A friend said the other day: “Most of the forces in the world are pushing toward exhibitionism and calling it honesty. The assumption is if you keep things to yourself you have something to hide.” But you aren’t reserved out of shame, you are reserved out of a sense of your own value and self-respect. And it doesn’t leave you alone; it means you are part of something larger, a whole world of distinct souls.
You shouldn’t violate your own privacy, not for attention or admiration, and not for money. It’s a mistake. And it won’t heal you.
If they actually make this deal, my guess is that he won’t just go wandering around doing random “man-on-the-street” pieces. My guess is he will travel around Britain and do feature-type stories that focus on British people, history and culture. Everything will be carefully scripted and controlled, the people he speaks to will be screened to be sure they are “Harry friendly.” The segments will probably be shot in the weeks leading up to the coronation and then be sprinkled throughout their coverage of the coronation day itself.
March 2003 Goes to Cape Town and calls Chelsy. She brings family and a friend. She is not interested in status basically.
throne syndrome: "Unlike so many girls I met, she wasn't visible fitting herself for a crown the moment she shook my hand." Also applies to actors and musicians but they have "talent" while he talks of having none. Their common interest: Africa. They, with others got to Botswana.
It is a good thing for someone to want you for yourself rather than the status or money or lifestyle you offer.
p 95
Botswana is fun but eventually pretty much everyone leaves except 5 and a guide. They crash a party of two wild life filmmakers, Teej and Mike, and hangs with them for a while.
p 97
Teej: I think your body was born in Britain, but your soul was born here in Africa.
He leaves them and shows up on Chelsy's front steps.
They leave for London where they get papped. He tells her that this is similar to life with a chronic disease. Returns to Africa and meets her parents whom he describes as would be great inlaws (he's "alpha" and she listens well).
Exams to enter Sandhurst. Passes and says that his problems are the kind of thing which they are looking for in people - loss of a parent and unresolved grief.
I am not as convinced that having people who have issues they are currently toting and giving them guns and telling them to make wise decisions will meet nicely in a Venn diagram. But that's me and I'm apparently not Sandhurst material.
PC to marry C. Despite protests by both sons, he decides he wants this.
"...the woman he loved..." wow. Isn't that funny that that exact word choice was used with his father about Camilla? If that is a coincidence, maybe they ought to buy a lottery ticket now.
For some reason, someone help me here, I know the TQ was not in favor of C, refused to meet her but that (I thought) she had resigned herself to the situation and kicked him about how he needed to ahem or get moving in a different direction.
All kinds of troubles about the date. Pope passed and TQ wanted PC at the funeral instead of getting married that day. Allegedly 5 heard screams but he was not certain if it was PC, C or the wedding planner.
So my mind asked: Stupid question which may get answered later on. Who or where was the wedding planner for 5 and *? Shouldn't Katherine have been calling them instead of * for the dress? Or why was * winding up on the floor over such pressure instead of passing that on to the planner? PC/C gets one but * who has no knowledge of the UK/monarchy and isn't allowed one?
He is 20 and is entering the Army. "I knew without question that this marriage would take Pa away from us."
So neither kid is living with him, they are both starting adulthood but somehow the expectations are that his father should be sitting alone and waiting around in case either kid called him because he should always be available or something?
p 100
"In a funny way, I even wanted Camilla to be happy.
May be she'd be less dangerous."
The next paragraph is about just married signs on the car. No explanation or further commentary about either of the two sentences which precede it. and then it ends with:
"Damn, I'd like us all to be happy."
It's not even a backhanded compliment (the second sentence). More like backhanded praise combined with a pre-emptive stab in the back.
Nevertheless, the constitutional position of a future monarch being married to someone `with a spouse still living' was a tad awkward, not least because ERII could hardly been seen attending the formal ceremonies. Compared with the fuss in 1960 about whether Margaret's future m-i-l could attend the wedding of her son to the sister of the Queen, it was nothing. (that was at a time when a divorced person was not permitted to be in the `presence' of the monarch!).
BTW It was OK for Charles to remarry as in the eyes of the church he had become a widower in 1997.
-----
I can only think that H has a very limited vocabulary and doesn't understand what a `scream' really is.
Talk about recollections may vary! Harry and Meghan's 'truth' doesn't always match everyone else's but this forensic analysis of the inaccuracies in the prince's book shows that this time he's surpassed himself
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11633705/Talk-recollections-vary-Harry-Meghans-truth-doesnt-match-elses.html
Thank you @abbyh for valiantly ploughing through the book. I hope this won't affect your mental health!
Thanks @abbyh
I’m finding it hard to get past
the headlines in the papers
let alone reading his rubbish.
You have well and truly
taken one for the Nutty team 😘
@WildBoar
Exactly.
Officers have their
fair share of idiots, as do OR’s
Never noticed an abundance
of grief stricken orphans
when I Served.
I’m finding it hard to get past
the headlines in the papers
........
You and me both, Magatha! I can't believe there's more everyday. I usually glance at the articles, I can't stomach all that twaddle. Thank you for entertaining the troops through this punishing period 😁
Harry is now saying he has enough to write about Charles and William for a second book, which I am viewing as a threat by Harry. Go ahead and write a second book and see how far that gets you with your family.
One of the quickest ways to enrage a narcissist like Harry’s wife is to ignore them. It seems that one of her goals with Harry’s book and all his interviews is to trigger the royal family to respond to them, but all she’s getting is crickets from the palace, which is the right thing for Charles and William to do.
In reality, this is actually Harry continuing to act as a proxy mouthpiece for his wife, who we all know is running him like a robot. Meghan has so thoroughly brainwashed him that all he can spew are Meghan’s talking points and word salad. He is so well trained she doesn’t even need to put her hand up his backside to move his mouth.
More and more people are realizing that Harry has been caught up in a relationship that is more akin to being in a cult than a marriage, but this behavior is doing little to nothing to advance their victim narrative while simultaneously inflicting immense damage to themselves and their global brand.
It will likely soon reach a point when nobody will desire to be associated with them for business/philanthropic/activist/humanitarian endeavors no matter what sort of royal titles they possess.
My advice to Harry’s family: Let the Sussexes continue to self-destruct on a global stage. It is painful to watch this happen, but when dealing with someone controlled by a narcissist, nothing you do or say will appease them. They will always want more from you until they ruin and control you too. Stay strong and do not respond to them.
————————
Daily Mail headline: 'Apologise!' Prince Harry demands that Royal Family say sorry to Meghan as he says 'You know what you did, and I now know why you did it. And you've been caught out, so just come clean'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11634693/Apologise-Prince-Harry-demands-Royal-Family-say-sorry-Meghan.html
In the past, she would not allow an opportunity to be seen without him when the focus was clearly all about it. Now she is nowhere to be seen.
How can a divorced person not be allowed in the presence of the monarch when George VI's equerry, the man that Princess Margaret fell in love with and wasn't allowed to marry, was divorced?
I came across a report that he claims in his book that they have not used his mother's money and were keeping it for Archie (at the time they only had one child). Have you come across this in the book yet?
In the Oprah interview he said that they were using the money from his mother (thanks goodness we had that otherwise we would not be able to pay for all of this... and the assumption was that he was talking about the house and security).
If by some miracle I can find it again, I will post straight away.
And, @abbyh, once again thank you for plowing though the lie-fest book and giving us the highlights which are actually the sickening delusional lowlights.
It applied to persons admitted to the Royal Presence as near-but-not-quite equals, ie what used to be called `Society'. This is in formal spaces which contained the monarch eg the Royal Enclosure at Ascot or as `Royal-In-laws' at `One-Removed' at the wedding
AA-J's mother had subsequently married an Earl.
Were such a rule applied today, there'd be nobody in Society.
Precisely. It's what we and the Press are saying to them but they ae incapable of acknowledging it so accuse others instead. It's what narcs do.
I wonder what the real story is. Did she try to get freebies and the designer said no? And she did wear Erdem before and after the marriage.
Maybe (I could be wrong) but perhaps Katherine has been wearing him for a little longer and the firm/fashion house/designer looks at long standing (ie existing relationships) and responds based on that?
A review from a person who has worked as a ghostwriter.
@abbyh
You have a love poem written by her to look forward to: "Love need not always be showy, whatever he thinks now he lives in the land of Meghan and her gruesome love poems (the one he quotes is unbearable: pure vomit emoji)."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/15/spare-by-prince-harry-review-dry-your-eyes-mate
Headline in today’s DM:
“Royals want face-to-face peace talks between William and Harry at Windsor BEFORE Charles's coronation in May 'to avoid it becoming a circus' - with source close to the King insisting: 'It is going to take flexibility on ALL sides... but it CAN be done'”
That the British monarchy is bending over to give a puppeted prince a meeting is appalling. The Royal Family has nothing to apologize for and should make absolutely NO CONCESSIONS. None. Ever. No reconciliation is possible at this point and it never will be possible. The Palace is dealing with a malignant narcissist. Harry’s wife will NEVER be satisfied. She will always want more.
An old post on this blog from Miggy using a quote from Lady Colin Campbell’s book published a few years ago sums up Meghan quite well and is appropriate to this situation.
“Miggy said...
What a Hollywood producer who had worked with Meghan is quoted as saying in the Lady Colin Campbell book- Meghan and Harry, The Real Story:
"While her admirers commended her for her tenacity and toughness, one producer told me that he regarded her ‘an odiously pushy, voracious piece of work’. She was ‘greedy’, had ‘far too high an opinion of herself’, and was ‘a player who has a compulsion to always push for more. If you offered her California, she’d demand Arizona as well, and, if you didn’t give it to her, you were victimising her."”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11636425/Royal-sources-claim-peace-summit-cards-Prince-Harry-Firm.html
I actually felt lightheaded when reading this. His entitlement is off the charts.
While reading SPARE, if you run across this line of complaint about not getting the expected redundancy pay-out (what about the millions he received after fleeing to North America?) please let us know.
Somehow I had not previously heard or read about him demanding redundancy payment for his "lifetime of service".
--------
I would love to quit a job on my own volition, then receive millions for my "service"
I find it shocking that H would want redundancy payment for a lifetime - lifetime? - of service.
I searched and found this in BuzzFeed, last lines section 35
Harry acknowledged that it was "absurd" for a man in his 30s to complain about being cut off, but added, "Cutting me off therefore I meant firing me, without redundancy pay, and casting me into the void after a lifetime of service. More, after a lifetime of rendering me otherwise unemployable."
His fault if he finds himself unemployable. His sense of entitlement reminds me of * who couldn't believe she wasn't paid for their tour of Australia. She !other not understand how the RF worked, although she has preparation and guidance, but H knew full well.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/madisonmcgee/prince-harry-memoir-details
Thanks for cutting and pasting this gem from BuzzFeed, Harry seems oblivious to the fact that he RESIGNED and fled to North America. Resigning in a snit, and fleeing is 180° different than being fired. I quote your gem: "Cutting me off therefore I meant firing me, without redundancy pay, and casting me into the void after a lifetime of service. More, after a lifetime of rendering me otherwise unemployable." -end quote-
When, oh when will this massive jerk shut up and realize he is amongst the most privileged people on earth?
I don't think he ever will shut up, thus our only hope is that the public will tire of them, and so the press will wean themselves off of obsessively covering H and his douchass' every gaseous utterance and demand.
From my lips to God's ear...
If you are trying to talk your way to being hired (for anything), you need to be able to coherently explain why there is this gap on your resume. Perhaps two or so sentences. Not a book and not media interviews. And especially not whining about how mean they were at the last place. Those are not positive selling points.
Secondly, at his age, that's a lifetime already? The Queen Mother passed at 101, the Queen was 96, Prince Phillip 99. I am not certain what the "normal" age is for retirement in the UK but it is not 38 like 5 is currently.
@SwampWoman: LOL!!!
Redundancy is initiated by the employer, on a voluntary or involuntary basis.
`Voluntary' is when it's in the interest of the company, as in the case of a well-known IT company some years ago. They called it `skills rebalancing' ie getting rid of older employees to replace them with youngsters. Employees were offered a fairly generous settlement.
`Involuntary' is when reorganisation destroys one's job and nothing else can be found within the organisation. The rate of payment is one month's pay for each year of service.
Neither of these applies to H - he tried dictating to his `employer', refused to accept their position so cleared off, just as any of us would have to do if we threatened to leave unless we got a pay rise.
His vocabulary is deficient and he does nothing to remedy it.
No, H certainly doesn't understand the word `redundancy' but then he's never been employed in any capacity. He has zero experience of the workplace so is it any wonder?
Training exercise, his knee injury, palace tells them it was rugby (which he finds some pleasure in that they got it wrong) and then that the press claimed he was trying to avoid the army (I believe that was debunked).
Jan 2005
Ah, yes. That party scene. PW's friend (not his), 5 doesn't like dress up formal (ouch, does * know?), doesn't like themed parties - so, not sure why he decided to go. Life was a bit nomadic, living out of a suitcase. He doesn't have anything but PW and new girlfriend (he likes) K, likes laughs, but worries that she will take PW away from him (that's a theme, isn't it - losing someone you love to someone else that they love)
Doesn't remember K outfit, PW is a furry so he winds up choosing the outfit after a call to them where they encourage this. They all laugh about it.
p 103
No one took notice of him that he noticed except someone took photos and sold them (haggling mind you) for 5000 pounds.
"I thought I might die of shame....What was I thinking? I wasn't". this is actually manning up to that mistake.
p 104
PW is sympathetic. (nice but ... nothing about how you are part of this for once He calls his dad and the response was "serene". He then goes on to question if this is actually a ploy for his father to use to get good publicity for himself but concludes that his father was being very caring. the level of paranoia is quite intense at this point to see his father only looking at him as a catapult to momentary glory
Interesting point: PC says that the fury about this will die off, the shame will die off but 5 actually goes on to say that the shame should not. a man up move again in this saga
PC sends him to the chief rabbi of Britain (a thoughtful guy) 5 feels "...bottomless self loathing". Rabbi talks about forgiveness. Publicly some vocally do not want him in the Army.
Jamie Lowthe Pinkerton JLP the new Marko but with official duties
Asks him for the photos of his mother's accident (which is done but worst are removed) and he is warned that this will be upsetting (rightly so)
p 107
Many are from the paps, show how chaotic it was, "...disgraceful carnival".
the survivor, mummy's friend which he now realizes was her bf (but was he really a true bf or just someone of convenience while she worked on her next move?, the driver whom 5 mentions that "some" believe was the reason because of the alcohol but 5 doesn't say one way or the other, just that the guy can't defend himself
It takes him a while to realize the reason for the really good lighting is that it is the paps and that they are not trying to help her, comfort her or do anything other than just take pictures as she is just loose in the back of the car
I think we all can agree that continuing to shoot the photos was wrong. That, there is no right here. What we don't know is: how long it took for an ambulance to get there, could anyone get into the car or were the doors all locked?, as for doing something - if you are not some trained EMT, getting people to move is sometimes the really wrong thing, comfort? maybe? and finally, I believe the reason they had those photos had to do with the fact that the police confiscated all the cameras.
She had no visible injuries and he comes to the conclusion that she's hiding and that perhaps if he had seen the worst ones, maybe he would have been able to conclude she was dead. she wasn't dead in the car but was semiconscious in the ambulance.
He did have reasons to be angry.
p 108
Leaves for the Army, now he's their problem. May 2005, his father dropping him off (like other dads) but his is a photo op.
Oath to the Queen
Boot camp is not fun. They have color sergeant instead of drill one. And they all had tiny dainty little dogs
People would leave (tapped out),
He was really happy about no press until the Sun got a reporter onto the area where he was, the guy was walking around with a "fake bomb" to make a point about the security which 5 mentions that people read this article and believe it to be true (wait, didn't you just tell us that the guy was successful at being to get there when he should not - how that not true?)
Hazard really expected boot camp to be “fun”?
HMTQ really did a disservice to her own armed forces by allowing her mentally defective grandson who lacked the humility to try to work hard to overcome his shortcomings to enlist. He should have been told after his abysmal showing at Sandhurst that he’d be given a cottage at Balmoral and would train as a gamekeeper/groundsman for HM’s estate or he could go to Australia or Africa for the same purpose. Clearly he was not cut out for a role in the Army or a position of responsibility at court. Charles needed to face facts when Dimwit left Eton.
My family visited me for the weekend and we went to Target. I passed one lone copy of SPARE near the checkouts. I showed it to my family and we had a good laugh over the marmalade mug shot. Of course I didn’t bloody well buy it for $25. My mother asked me if I was buying it, and I said hell no, I’ll wait for it to show up at the dollar store for two dollars. This summer it should be in the clearance bin, if not before.
He is pushed to limit, to kill yourself selfishness so they become bonded, a unit.
"Self? I was more than ready to shed that dead weight. Identity? Take it."
111
Weeks into it, poem for the fallen (a lot of poetry and training, how British)
notices a motif of death: "how to avoid it, how to face it, head on."
He had a lot of classroom challenges at this point with memorizing dates, learning military strategy from prior battles including falling asleep in class (complains of boring but doesn't name names.
Bayonets "Kill, Kill." see note below
Guns and grenades
He got better at shooting.
p 113
shipped to Wales to do some multiday challenge (heat wave, rains on them on the only night they can sleep, just not fun) when he gets trench foot, the ambulance is there but is convinced to keep going for another 6 to 8 miles which he does and is proud he pushed (thanks that sergeant after, not named)
a fairly monastic life but he gets to keep his phone (he stays in contact with Chelsey, and allows others to use it).
p 115
April 12, 2006 Passing Out (graduation)
PC, C, PP, Tiggy, Marko and TQ (who had not personally appeared at this for a long time),
PW is also around at that location - to which special point is made that 5 is currently of higher rank than his brother and that for his brother to ignore 5 would be subordinate.
After lunch, the adults leave and then the party really gets going (implies he got drunk)
p 116
Articles printed about him were true - he had asked for help from JLP on a project and PW left a message pretending to be Chelsey.
"It made me paranoid." No, I think it must made you more of what you already had inside.
Wants to go to Iraq where "...there are clear rules of engagement. Where there's some sense of honor."
Note: There is this funny moment in the song Alice's Restaurant where he's jumping up and down yelling Kill, Kill . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m57gzA2JCcM (the whole thing is fun if you never have heard it before)
Some of this stuff. sigh. by not being together while this is being read, we miss all the eye rolling and head shaking when we read this and think about how one sided this world view can be
Their creams were among the first with ceramides. The 8 hour cream did wonders after a hangover back in the day.
A male friend gave me the best Valentine Day gift ever - a spa day at the Elizabeth Arden spa including a huge gift basket. They have an original O'Keefe in the lobby too. Or at least did back in the day.
I am glad the queen missed the todger tales.
Bet H wished he saved the hand written note from his father. Imagine what it would sell for on ebay.
1/2 seemed to be against his going and half supportive
local insurgents send a formal invitation which did not offer kind intentions
p 120
Pulled out as he was "Mother of all targets".
PC's statement was the 5 was "very disappointed." not true "I was crushed."
later reports had him depressed and others had that he had requested to be pulled.
what to do next?
talks with Chelsey(supportive), PW (competitive feelings ... but)
p 121
"Most of the time Willy and I didn't have any truck with all that Heir Spare nonsense but now and then I'd be brought up short and realize that on some level it really did matter to him. Professionally, personally he cared where I stood, what I was doing."
a positive comment of how his brother was supportive and cared
Used Red Bull and Vodka for "comfort"
the paps get their own little post
Disliked paps even more as now the sound of the click triggered like a gun click and then a blinding flash
He says that they were deliberately targeting him to get an aggressive response
in 2007, a good photo was 30,000 pounds but one where he was reacting was even more valuable.
IDK, were they really targeting him in that way? was that price accurate? Notice the tone and description in this next section.
The paps had always been grotesque people, but as I reach maturity they were worse. You could see it in their eyes. Their body language. They were more emboldened, more radicalized, just as young men in Iraq had been radicalized. their mullahs were editors, the same ones who'd vowed to do better after Mummy died. The editors promised publicly to never again send photographers chasing after people, and now, ten years later, they were back to their old ways. They justified it by no longer sending their own photographers directly; instead they contracted with pap agencies, who sent the photographers, a distinction without a shred of difference ... And one seemed to give a shit."
There was supposed to be an incident where they were throwing themselves on the car when he was in it. Does any one remember any thing like that?
He's told "Price you pay ... though I never understood what they meant."
a life so far of privilege? to go out clubbing? Not have to worry about money or a home where you pay rent so that means a day job or having body guards who maybe able to help get you out of scrapes like having you be in the boot (truck) of the car so they couldn't take photos? IDK
Are you still doing that book report? The ironing is getting crisis level heights.
When is dinner?
What about laundry? I need ... I need ... I need ...
Did you go to the grocery store? (no) BUT ...
So I was doing some of that this week end but the ironing is only piling up higher. Oh well. That's life.
Wembly, 2007 the concert 10 years, 65,000 live and 500 million watching it live (slightly other stats can be found on the web)
Supporting her charities and his new one Sentabel (Lesotho for the forget me not flower, her favorite) fighting HIV in Lesotho
He does not mention it but the Queen was present. In the book, he talks of his brother as having the same feelings during the show. We. But he realized later that there wasn't talk of what she had meant to them. This is explained as still too raw.
He mentions feeling paralyzed at one point but also being swept away by the emotions of the crowd, the music and pulsing pictures of her.
Elton refused to play candle and did Your Song instead.
Back when I had to look professional instead of a wrinkled mess, I invested in a professional steamer. Much quicker to steam out those linen suits and husband's guayabera shirts than to iron them! (Now, I just wear the wrinkled linen because anybody that doesn't like it has an open invitation to come do it for me.)
.)
it is interesting. i live in a moderate sized metropolitan area. our local library notes that 800 people are in queue to read the book. they have 10. some are book clubs (yeah that would be a fund one over cocktails and a lot of hubbies waiting outside as designated drivers 😉). but you can buy the book anywhere no one wants to pay for it ha! was at the airport yesterday. was at the worlds busiest airport (or claims to be) no one had the book in hand (do they come with special covers so people won’t know you are reading it 😉)
supposedly Princess of Wales has a big initiative announcement this week. do we think mrs trodger will be doing. something pap walk with an empty buggy? having tea with a friend (after being dissed by the Bafta LA tea for which there were never ever invited )
The photographer who had to let the RPOs destroy his picture of Di with someone she shouldn't have been with, reckon he could have made £30K back then, 1989 or earlier, I understand.
Botswanna with Chelsey, visiting Teej, Mike and Adi feels like bringing home the gf to meet the parents, starts calling Teej Mom
drinking Southern Comfort with Sambuca Gold (day) with Sambuca Black (night)
dealing with "unsorted anger", "not being at war-not leading my lads."
"From the outside my probably drinking looked like partying ... "
Returns, meets with CO and pitches a return to operations or end Army life (as he looks a mess)
Having a prince in the ranks is a good look, genuine kind response
Afghanistan is safer?
FAC Forward Air Controller
Like playing a video game where you are directing assorted aircraft to go here or there as needed and where exactly to look for the target to take them out
Yorkshire Dales, great artists, Wordsworth (poetry and Army again) where he is certified
Art of Distruction
Teach move from Big, medium smaller, ("Hierarchy you say? Think I can handle that?")
have to see it first as destroyed to be able to think in 3d how to get that to look like that (not random so the target escapes)
Have to have clear communication, (perhaps rigid to avoid potential for things to go south)
Affirm or I am Visual.
p 128
Trained but now has to become combat ready (28 combat controls to learn)
where to go? Sandringham where he stays at a local hotel during the offseason where his guards would stay when he was visiting grandparents
almost completely private
problems with Chelsey
I think it is also dreadful that 'H' has the temerity to write about Chelsy's personal life with the Big Mouth. Especially considering she was allegedly approached for input on Spare and she declined to give any info.
I think he should have been a gentleman and 'Not Kissm& Tell' Cad!!
PC never made an attempt to contact when he as at Sandringham. "Give me space, I guess."
still in "newlywed phase".
no mention of any attempt to invite or let PC know when are convenient days or times
PC believed in work, everyone should. He would fall asleep on top of his correspondence and would wake up with paper stuck to his face.
This next story, if it had italics in the quote, I kept them. Bold however, is my insertion.
So ... one day PC sees a low flying plane and comes to conclusion the person directing is 5 and goes off to find him. (it could have been others but don't let that get in the way)
He finds 5 and although 5 is in the middle of this exercise, the two have a quick chat.
p 130
"...buoyed up by his praise."
"Yes, yes, darling boy back to work."
"He drove off. As he went down the track I told "the Typhoon: new target. Gray Audi. Headed southeast from my position down track. Towards a big sliver barn orientated east-west.
The Typhoon tracked Pa, did a low pass straight over him, almost shattering the windows of his Audi.
But ultimately spared him. On my orders.
It went on to blow a silver barn to smithereens."
wow. I have not seen or heard this story mentioned but it might be a cautionary tale about 5's internal thinking about the relationship with his father whether or not they really blew the barn up or just a practice run.
Oct 2007 World Cup playoffs in Paris
Decides he wants to go through the tunnel at 65 to recreate what it should have been (originally it was supposed to 120 mph).
There is a lip at the entrance which is alleged to have sent her car off kilter but it really is not noticeable. It is a straight through situation with no funny turns. No reason anyone should ever die inside it."
After doing it a second time, he decides it was a bad idea.
He was looking for "closure" but really, like when he looked at the police files, "disbelief". But he finally concludes she really was dead.
re: closure "And now I'd never be able to get rid of it."
You don't get rid of pain from loss however you can move on in your life, lessen that amount of pain, increase the positive (positive memories, how you commemorate that painful passing moment) BUT BUT BUT you have to allow yourself to do this. If you say "never", then you won't ever because, well, that is not an option.
"Pain Part Deux"
He gets drunk, picks fights and they get thrown out of a bar. (even takes on his bodyguards). "He's a handful tonight."
Back at the hotel, he slips out (guard asleep) and wanders by himself.
PW is coming to Paris, they talk about the tunnel (PW also has done a tunnel drive through). They agree that the recent inquest was full of untruths and that totally blaming the driver as drunk was "...convenient and absurd."
Paps chased and blinded.
They decide to request to reopen the inquest but "the powers that be" ... it didn't happen.
Discounts the amount of drinking (and I seem to remember that he had some prescription meds at play as well)
Remember the photo of the photographer from in front of the car, so you see the faces of the people inside. It always says that this was taken moments before the crash. But when before? I think it was at the hotel when they are trying to get away but had not gotten up to a faster speed yet.
Then, what I don't understand is why the insistence that the driver was blinded by the flashes. For him to be blinded, he had to be looking back at them (in the cars behind them) instead of keeping his eyes on the road. Or the only other way to be blinded was if there were paps in some car ahead of them - which begs the question of how would they know where the Diana car would go - the Diana car could turn and go off in another direction to lose the pap car?
It also absolves Mummy's friend (admits he was a boyfriend) and that he might have been encouraging faster driving.
Or that she chose not to wear a seat belt.
p 133
flight to Afghanistan, "I replayed my life. I thought about Pa and Willy. And Chels." they hadn't broken up
p 134
"If I die in Afghanistan, I thought, at least I'll never have to see another fake headline, read another shameful lie about myself."
riff on dying
"How would I be remembered by history?"
Where to be buried (Frogmore Gardens, update the will)
So he goes and it is incredible sandy. Sand everywhere. People are described as looking as if they were "breadcrumbed before frying".
Sees sand in the wind and thinks of eternity.
136
Corporal showing him around is unsure if it is safe to tease 5 about also being red haired and balding.
Likens the job to being an air traffic controller at Heathrow.
138
Kill TV alternate name for the Rover
Kill Radio a tower of Babble with all the different nationalities accents
really boring, boring, boring and sudden response out of nowhere
His call was Widow Six Seven
139
Consequences of a mistake can mean friendly fire (happened just before he got there)
used the Sat phone to call Chelsey (she is waiting), his father really prefers letters.
Not as much action as he wanted to he asked to get closer
Gurkhas at the new location, from Nepal, fought in every British war for at least the last 200 years or so, had one of their uniforms as a kid, in practice battle exercises, they always are the enemy (dk but it might actually be a good thing as they are really superb fighters so having someone that good might actually be helpful to give a better feel for real enemies)
p 142
Talk of "winning the Afgan 'hearts and minds" but only the Gurkhas are doing this." They were more keyed into the types of local foods (goat) and so on, swapping recipes. He sees an old acquaintance who has lovingly brought two baby goats and 5 realizes that the guy is not prepared to see that goat beheaded in front of him.
p 145
His first real strike and he is talked into not sending more bombs that he wanted ("Go big") and then some of them escape/not killed.
p 146
Press around, he goes to Musa Qala where they had possession, they lost it (during which people who had cooperated got their heads put on sticks as punishment) and then regained.
IED story, looks at fields of poppies and thinks of the poem of Flanders and poppies (poetry and Army again)
two stories about Americans near by
So they are shooting at some shepherds on motorbikes to try to keep the shepherds to back off and one gets shot. The Americans go in, patch the guy up. 5 and some Fujis go get the bike, clean it up and the guy is stunned when they give it back to him.
Americans drop some bombs on a village and then some people, who don't speak English show up with a kid in a wheelbarrow who is in bad shape. Discussion about helping, then snipers try shooting at them. So the questions he brings up are is this done by an American or was this done to the kid by the Taliban so the kid will have the people congregated in one place for easy pickings? I have heard similar stories like this. Very sad.
p 150
Red Fox He learns that his cover was blown (Aussie paper but picked up in America so now all over). Memory of the Red Fox sending a message when he was at Eton.
p 152
"So-you're out." Sorry. To stay is to put people at risk.
As he's waiting to get on the plane to fly home, most are happy but they lose some of that when they realize the delay is due to getting a Danish soldier's casket on board.
During the long flight he sees three British soldiers, wounded and is thinking of them and other similar of their homecoming.
"I felt angry with myself for having been so self absorbed."
March 1, 2008 "obligatory press conference" he doesn't think of himself as a hero compared to others still there.
"I walked out of the room, straight into Willy and Pa. I think Willy hugged me. I think I gave Pa a kiss on each cheek. He might, also have ... squeezed my shoulder ... but for us it was a flamboyant unprecedented demonstration of affection."
I thought that PW was the one who called that press conference short because he could see the pain of his brother
I remember that just after the money shot video of Diana (who dashed ahead of PC) to go rush at the boys to greet them after being away, PC also hugged them. They were young and hugging is something which happened. As kids get older, there is less tolerance of being hugged (think teens or at least at our house).
Disconnected from where he had been and now in his father's car, feeling the soft seats and smelling his father's cologne.
p 154
Gets a month off, still a little disconnected when going out to a bar with friends.
Calls Chelsey, goes to Cape Town, they go to Botswana (Teej and Mike), rent a house boat, problems with press chasing them
Teej asks questions about the war in ways that PW, PC or Chelsey do not so he opens up to her. Teej also asks about Chelsey. 5 talks about how he likes this or that about her, she wears short skirts, can match him drinking tequila but worries that the Queen would find her too free a spirit.
p 155
They return to London, a tracking device is found on her car and questions a life of being stalked. "If I had a choice, I wouldn't want this life either."
Caroline Flack, met after break up with Chelsey, Paps were really bad. "Entitled. Emboldened." Relationship did not last but they liked each other. Some paper described her as his 'bit of rough' (apparently she had worked at one point in a factory) he gets on his high horse about snobbery
I don't know that he needed to put that in there even if he wasn't the one who said it originally. Or even mention her.
I haven't seen it since PC became king but it seemed like in every article where they talked about Catherine's parents, that there was a sort of negative class reference spin. Her parents may have been really hurt but they keep moving forward (and laughing all that way to the bank with how they are doing).
General Dannatt and wife meeting (gin and tonic)
tells the general he wants to get back to the war, general thinks of options and suggests helicopter pilot which he hadn't considered as he was too busy going his own way
does mention that PW, PC, PP and PA had all been pilots
however, he is unwilling to take the two years required to become one
p 158
his first official trip JLP coordinated (America where he visits the World Trade Center and meets wounded soldiers "Grief is a thing best shared."
didn't think much else that summer except of the soldiers who flew back with him
p 159
Help for Heroes bracelets both he and PW wanted to help
he privately starts visiting wounded at Selly Oak Hospital and Headly Court
At a rehab center he meets one of the three solders (lost an arm and a leg) when he just got his prosthetic leg (celebrates with wall climbing and wants to do a marathon)
5 offers to buy him a case of beer, 5 is thrilled to see what he has done
Botswana visiting Teej and Mike, some work with David Attenborough for Planet Earth
now doing a film on elephants entering Nambia and poachers picking them off, so he goes to help film
Riff on hating photographers as they take his personal freedom while in this case he/they are using photography to help keep the freedom for the elephants
also how vets use tracking devices on the elephants as a good thing
p 161 beginning 2009
video from 3 years ago, that he filmed of the negative comment about a Pakistani friend, Amedm it was passed around to friends of his and someone sold it
He didn't know, he's heard it for years without anyone ever making a point about it as a slur and compares it to calling someone an Aussi.
Highgrove offers an apology, he wants to respond personally but they tell him no.
"I cared about people not thinking I'm a racist." Amed forgave "... only made me feel worse."
a couple of thoughts. Although we agree now, there could be a point in time where it was a more common word and did not have the stigma that it has now. IDK. this isn't my wheelbox.
Calling someone by their country's name is not always a positive. There is a term for Canadians which some view as ok but can be fighting words by others. In some parts of the South, the term Yankee is still a negative description of someone.
Flight training, checked out medically "Drug free, they concluded. They seemed surprised."
so does he
Firefly, yellow, single prop fixed wing to start with
5 was very distracted, paps appeared, the instructor took him out on a motorbike to distract -
Speed Power and Freedom - the things he wanted and loved
Teaching then became focused on how to handle it when things go south
"No medals in Booley's cockpit for simply doing your job."
soloed and then moved up in piloting learning
p 165
new instructors, this time for helicopters
more complex (no kidding)
hover monkeys - when you are hovering, the interplay goes slightly off and you feel like monkeys are hanging on and making you lopsided or pull you off balance
he passes and struts in, others are not as successful
p 166
Rooming with PW, food from Dad's chefs,
together a good thing, this is when the hacking scandal comes down,
people are being arrested and he's doing a happy dance at their downfall and hopes they do prison time
p 168
joint media interview and PW throws him under the bus
they joke between themselves but 5 questions if PW was really joking or getting a chance to jab at 5
learn to fly tactically target, shooting, radio and what hasn't been mentioned all the todger fodder - learning how to pee in a bag
Star Wars - "Jedi mind trick" "Yoda" is Nigel or Nige
to kill head squirrels you have to have iron discipline
you get confidence through self love
"The fact is, I didn't believe in myself ... Whenever I made a mistake, which was quite often, I was quite harsh with Harry."
we have seen this before, nothing new but also this is pretty true for most of us who aren't royal and don't have that level of pressure
Nige: "Don't let one mistake destroy this flight, Lieutenant Wales" good advise
5 still lashes out at him at times
p 170
Debrief with Nige
"There were some things I needed to hear, and he didn't care about his tone when he told me."
Interesting comment, he does mention those who aren't just letting his slip through several times in this whole army/learn to fly part of his life.
Nige keeps pushing him and 5 goes from "defensive", giving naughty looks ... "stop listening" to you can't get belief in yourself from fakeness to allow you to pass through.
p 171
bait and switch Sure you can now fly an Apache but ... you have to spend three months in a classroom (gag him with a spoon) and wants to fly a Lynx and not an Apache.
They only give you 4 lessons to learn how to taxi with an Apache and apparently it is insufficient.
p 172
Distress in learning how to learn
Up until this point, the instructor is always beside him but in an Apache, they are far away (sounds like a lot of visual learning by copying)
The Bag Exercise - they cover the windows so you can only fly/take off with instruments
Flying in London at night, is the Queen at Buckingham, are the corgis out and about?
blinded by someone using a laser light reminds him of being Dodi's father who gave the two boys laser lights way back when.
Final instructor, they smile back and forth to each other, 5 wonders if the other guy will compliment or ask a favor. Neither. Turns out he was on the radio with him at the 2008 removal and could hear how devastating it was but "Now look at you?".
p 174
about to turn 25, major life point, similarity to QE who became queen at 25,
trip to Botswana Teej and Mike, has a come to Jesus talk from Mike about how now he has to give back to Africa , make a difference "Shine a light."
p 175
Unknown group with him, two boats, unnamed boat driver for his boat (but they are drunk and so is everyone else more or less)
on the river, major storm, at night, they suddenly see elephants in the river and cut the engines. Between the lightening flashes, they can see a lot of close up detail
transcendent moment for him (maybe some other but unclear other than someone saying quietly: "Holy shit." when they first see the elephants.)
They have to move at some point. He lights a cigarette.
interesting. He doesn't name a lot of friends and no one is named at all in this adventure. Some of his friends have sold him out for money. It is not clear if these people this time share his values about Africa. Not convinced he has a lot of good friends around. Perhaps PW has something right about trying to test people to see how far someone can and should be trusted.
p 176
He gets his wings pinned by his father. (nice). Camilla and his Diana aunts are there as is Chelsey. Trip to Botswana where they are "... wavering on the decision ... willfully delusional ..." about breaking up when Teej talks to them both about need to make the decision. so they break up
He leaves and joins up with PW at Lesotho, visiting Sentebale schools, Prince Seciso is part of it. They go to a school way off the beaten track, Semonkong where kids spend 12 hours herding, walk 2 hours to school for a hot meal and to learn. Some of the kids are killed by lightening, wild animal or are abused sexually by people passing through.
"I felt ashamed to think of all my bitching about school."
They give clothing to the kids and he gives a flashlight to one kid.
PW to marry, didn't give 5 a clue when they were in Africa,
***PW had asked for the ring back when Diana had died and he gave it to PW then
how he thought he would be married before his brother
backhanded compliment riff about how his father was fun but then got middle aged and not fun
PC was 32 when he married, 33 when PW was born and 36 for 5
unclear at what age 5 remembers it being fun and then when that stopped
Key question: will he ever be a father
Inquiring minds want to know: 5 was 34 for Archie's birth and 36 for Lilibet
Invited to join a trip to the North Pole with amputees.
close to the wedding (early April), encouraged by JLP
p 180
Dec 2010 trip to Berlin, JLP set up
visiting torture chambers, the Wall, met with a survivor
"I'd long understood the photo of me in a Nazi uniform was the result of various failures-failure of thinking, failure of character. But it also had been a failure of education. Not just school education, but self-education. I hadn't known enough about the Nazis, hadn't taught myself enough, hadn't asked enough questions of teachers and families and survivors."
well, I don't know of any education short of pro-Nazi movement where they ever talked about the movement as having good parts that have been overlooked by the this was not a good or moral organization. So it is unclear where or why he missed that vital part of them historically. It's always been out in the open so to speak (so how did he miss that part? and others seem to have picked that up?). And, this is coming from someone whose great-grandmother did not live through the Blitz or is known for her comment about finally having the palace bombed. Or that his great-uncle had some links to Nazi Germany. This makes it sound like his excuse is more in line with he didn't know because he lived under a rock or something.
Interesting article from FOX News. It’s one of several articles of this type outlining how the Sussexes are continuing their decline in the eyes of the A-listers. Meghan is calling all the shots and her narcissism is leading them into the dustbin of American pop culture. I can’t think of anyone of note in entertainment, business, or politics who is stepping forward to defend the odious ex-royals.
Published January 17, 2023 2:00am EST
Headline: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle 'Spare' fallout threatens Hollywood future: experts
By Stephanie Nolasco , Ashley Papa | Fox News
Could Prince Harry’s explosive memoir "Spare" hurt the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s chances of being a power couple in California? Several royal experts think so.
The 38-year-old, who lives in the coastal city of Montecito with his wife Meghan Markle and their two children, dished out another tell-all, which hit bookstores on Jan. 10. It sold 1.43 million copies during its first day on sale in the U.K., U.S., and Canada, making it the fastest-selling nonfiction book of all time, Guinness World Records shared.
But not so fast on the champagne popping, one royal expert warned. Kinsey Schofield, who is the host of the "To Di For Daily" podcast, told Fox News Digital that those within the couple’s circle in Hollywood may be wary of what they reveal out of fear the pair will publicly speak out once more.
"I think ‘Spare’ and the [recent] Netflix documentary will ultimately hurt Harry and Meghan’s relationships with the Hollywood elite," said Schofield.
"Did intensely private Beyoncé give Meg permission to read a text message that she sent the duchess verbatim to millions of Netflix subscribers?" she shared. "I highly doubt it. Did Courteney Cox expect to one day be called out for ‘magic mushroom chocolates’ in ‘Spare?’ Does Gayle King enjoy being grilled by the internet when Harry tells ITV there isn't a royal racist after Gayle appeared on morning television claiming that her friends, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, had receipts? They are putting people in uncomfortable situations."
"While having Tyler Perry and Oprah in your corner is a huge help, I think most individuals don't want to pick a side and would prefer to avoid the drama," Schofield added.
"Spare" exposes deeply personal details about Harry and the British royal family. The prince made damning allegations of a toxic relationship between the monarchy and the press, describing how family members would leak unflattering information about other members in exchange for positive coverage of themselves. He specifically singled out King Charles III’s wife, Camilla, accusing her of feeding private conversations to the media as she sought to rehabilitate her image after her longtime affair with his father.
Harry’s story is dominated by his rivalry with his elder brother Prince William, who is heir to the British throne, and the death of their mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. Harry, who was 12 at the time, described how then-Prince Charles broke the news of his mother’s accident but didn’t hug his son. Harry added that he and William both "begged" their father not to marry Camilla, worried she would become a "wicked stepmother."
The many claims in Harry's book sparked nonstop headlines. Harry alleged that during an argument in 2019, William called Markle "difficult" and "rude," then grabbed him by the collar and knocked him down. Harry said he suffered cuts and bruises from landing on a dog bowl. Harry also alleged that William and his now-wife Kate Middleton "howled with laughter" when he notoriously wore a Nazi uniform to a costume party.
Buckingham Palace officials have declined to comment on any of the allegations made in Harry's book. A spokesperson for the king didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. A spokesperson for Kensington Palace, which represents the Prince and Princess of Wales, told Fox News Digital it doesn’t have a comment. Allies of the royal family have pushed back on Harry’s claims, largely anonymously.
Royal author Christopher Andersen told Fox News Digital that despite the backlash "Spare" has received from defenders of the monarchy, there’s no denying its appeal. And he believes the offers to continue telling all will keep coming.
"'Spare' is unflinching in its depiction of William and Harry's relationship — a tense love-hate bond I describe in my books ‘Brothers and Wives’ and ‘The King’ — and depicts Queen Camilla as nothing less than ‘a villain’ who has left 'bodies in the streets,’" he explained. "At the same time, it's interesting to see how the British tabloids have really gone on the attack. A lot of people may be sick of listening to Harry and Meghan whine, to be sure. But the notion that the Sussexes are somehow on the ropes is complete nonsense."
"Regardless of what you think of them, they remain an enduring object of fascination in the U.S. and the U.K. — their ratings and book sales are undeniable proof of that," Andersen continued. "The Sussexes remain quite popular on this side of the Atlantic. The lucrative offers will keep on coming, and so will the invitations. More than ever, Harry and Meghan sit atop America's celebrity heap."
"Spare" is the latest in a string of public pronouncements by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex since they quit royal life in 2020. At the time, they cited what they saw as the media’s racist treatment of the duchess and a lack of support from the palace.
Following their exit, the couple sat down with Oprah Winfrey for an interview that was viewed by 50 million people globally. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke out again in a six-part Netflix documentary released last month.
To promote the book, Harry appeared on ITV, CBS "60 Minutes," "Good Morning America" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Some had wondered if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would make an appearance at the BAFTA Tea Party in Los Angeles. William, 40, has been president of BAFTA since 2010.
"We confirm that categorically their attendance was not discussed whatsoever," a spokesperson for BAFTA clarified to Fox News Digital. "The BAFTA Tea Party in LA is for those involved in this year’s film awards season, so film awards contenders and nominees."
Andersen said if there’s any invite the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should be concerned about, it’s the one for Charles’ coronation in May.
"We already know they will have no official ceremonial role to play," he said. "So even if they are grudgingly sent an invitation, Harry and Meghan may feel it's simply not worth traveling to London simply to be shoved aside as they essentially were during Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. Harry has spent his life in his brother's shadow – he still carries deep emotional scars from being cast in the role of ‘the spare,’ and he wrote about that movingly in his book. Why would he subject himself and his family to more humiliation?"
Harry’s willingness to air out the Windsors' dirty laundry on both sides of the Atlantic continues to spark sales. However, some royal experts are adamant that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will need to find new ways to stay relevant in California. Royal commentator Hilary Fordwich reminded Fox News Digital that following the couple’s interview with Winfrey in 2021, Michelle Obama told Access Hollywood: "My hope is that, when I think about what they’re going through, I think about the importance of family and I just pray that there is forgiveness and there is clarity and love and resolve at some point in time. Because there’s nothing more important than family."
"Americans, with an absence of royalty on their shores, are renowned for treasuring family," Fordwich explained. "Britons value family too and certainly the recent outpouring for the late Queen Elizabeth II demonstrated the love for the royal family. In America, there was a time when family for recent immigrants was one of the few things they had. So family is especially treasured.
So was digging up old skeletons for a reported $20 million advance worth it? Fordwich doesn’t believe so.
"Perhaps Michelle Obama’s sentiments regarding Harry and Meghan's brutal break from the royal family speaks volumes for the sentiments of many Americans," she shared. "A-listers or not, another question is, would anyone want a family member disclosing intimate details publicly, such as in ‘Spare,’ regarding their own family?"
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/prince-harry-meghan-markle-spare-fallout-threatens-hollywood-future-experts
I am listening to it on audible and am still only half way through but so far have a few thoughts
1. It is actually very boring
2. You can feel the treachery, spite, vindictiveness, deceit, victimhood, maliciousness, envy, paranoia, delusion and manipulation in every sentence, Its oozes into my pores and makes me feel unclean just listening to it. I cannot think of a book I have enjoyed less.
3. The weird and constant mentions of his mum are just bizarre. I understand the tragedy of him losing her so young, but I am sure his reactions to it are not typically normal for what is now a grown man. He is batshit crazy.
4. He has long gratuitous sections about killing rabbits, deer, pheasants, and talks at length about the blood, gore and disembowelling. It literally made me feel sick.
5. He has a grandiose sense of self-importance that is utterly delusional.
6. His constant references to his drug taking are over the top. He acts like it is totally normal. I understand why this plays a part in his autobiography since he seems to have spent so much of his time taking them. But he seems to glorify it with no introspection on the dangers, and revels in spilling all the details with no cares for the people who have loyally tried to cover up for him over the years. Despite the fact he talks about leaking and planting by his family it is obvious how much they have covered for him.
...
7. He doesn't seem to give a damn if he destroys the monarchy, and after reading the book that is what I think he is intent on doing. He misses no opportunity to add in any malicious adjectives, unnecessary anecdote, unflattering (and unlikely) quotes about his family and throws shade and blame on to them whenever he can. He comes over as so petty and malicious. You get the sense that he feels that if he can't be king he will blow the whole thing up.
8. It is abundantly clear he has no real love for his dad, brother, or grandfather from the way he talks about them, and it is questionable that he even loved the queen. He shows no empathy or respect for them and makes them look bad whenever he can. He can talk all he likes about reconciliation but he has burnt every bridge and if he were my son or brother, he would be dead to me. There is no purpose to a reconciliation - if it is not for love then it is for his own self-serving purposes.
9. When you read the whole book rather than listening to excerpts, some stories fade into insignificance. For example the losing his virginity story is a minor mention in passing. But what you don't get from the excerpts is the whole sense of nastiness pervading every paragraph. Before reading it I really didn't like Harry, but blamed Meghan far more. Never before have a read an autobiography where someone has the chance to write the narrative of their own life in a way that is supposedly flattering, and I have found myself liking them even less, despising them in fact. He is an utterly nasty piece of work......and I am still only half way through the book.
1. I think part of the sense of boredom is that the writing gets monotonous after a while. Also, you are immersed inside Harry's head and he really has no empathy for anyone. When I finished the first few chapters, I felt like I was reading one of those 80s anti-hero novels like American Psycho, where you are looking at things from the viewpoint of a sociopath. The way he focuses on the bedroom sheets and the hole in his shoe and even the way he spoke of women ("she was perfect, perfect, perfect") struck as very Patrick Bateman.
2. I agree as to the nastiness, hence the American Psycho reference above. One of the passages that most struck me was when the Diana Ghost Leopard shows up and his bodyguards are alarmed. He explains that they were alarmed because if the leopard mauled him the headlines would be horrible. It didn't seem to cross his mind that the bodyguards were scared because they did not want him hurt. He only thought of the headlines. That, to me, shows how warped his mindset is.
3. Ditto on the Diana segments. It feels almost sweet at first because the first chapters of the book deal with his childhood, but then it turns weird really quickly.
4. I'm surprised not that many people have talked about the hunting gore. It's very striking and, frankly, alien. I know hunters (at least in the US) and I've never heard of any describing the kills like this. It was truly disturbing, and I'm not anti-hunting. It's just that he seemed to enjoy the gore a little too much.
5. He is very arrogant, particularly for someone who was supposedly raised with an inferiority complex for being a spare.
6. Drugs seem to be a part of his identity, which surprised me since I'd bought into the "Hero Harry" image. I don't know if that was always the case, or if he bought into the California drug culture when he arrived there, but it's striking.
7. He does want to destroy the monarchy. That comes across very clearly.
8. He seems very detached from everyone in his family, and yet passionately attached to the image he has built of his mom (a tabloid-based image!). It's an interesting contrast. He has no empathy for Will's position at all or for his dad's struggles. His family relationships seemed to be stuck at a childhood developmental level--mom is the perfect nurturer, father is all-powerful, and brother is a rival.
9. It is all very nasty, and I'm surprised someone didn't step in to explain that to him.
https://www.tumblr.com/anonymoushouseplantfan
The writer notes that after TBW comes into the picture, the tone of the memoir completely changes:
"After Markle comes into Spare, a little past the halfway point, the memoir surrenders its lovely, episodic, ruminative moments to prosecute the many mind-numbing disputes and grudges the couple has with his parents and brother. ... The writing also becomes notably more pedestrian. " ...
The ghostwriter wrote the first part of the book (the article makes it clear that this is not the voice of hapless). After she enters the picture, she takes over.
To my surprise, the first half of Spare turns out to be a fascinating literary venture. This is surely all down to Harry’s collaborator, J.R. Moehringer, one of the most sought-after ghostwriters in the business, a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, and the author of his own bestselling memoir, The Tender Bar. When ghostwriting Andre Agassi’s memoir Open, Moehringer moved to Las Vegas, where Agassi lives, for two years, interviewing the tennis star for many, many hours to produce what’s widely considered the gold standard in sports autobiography....
. . .After Markle comes into Spare, a little past the halfway point, the memoir surrenders its lovely, episodic, ruminative moments to prosecute the many mind-numbing disputes and grudges the couple has with his parents and brother. The British tabloid press behaves shockingly, but even outrage at its flagrant racism could not sustain my interest through long passages about wedding arrangements and housing options. Spare becomes more Harry’s book than Moehringer’s and in the process loses the sweetness and generosity that suffuse its first half. The writing also becomes notably more pedestrian. It left me wishing Moehringer would write a novel about a man much like Harry, a simple man in an impossible situation, seeking a meaningful place for himself in the world. A light novel, a sweet novel, a comically romantic novel. And above all, a novel that ends before the wedding."
https://slate.com/culture/2023/01/prince-harry-book-spare-sales-review.html?via=rss_socialflow_twitter
https://twitter.com/ryanlongcomedy/status/1615424009390198788
But based on the comments above, I think I will read the first half only. I do admire the ghostwriter's work very much. I couldn't put down the autobiography he did with Andre Agassi and I am not a tennis fan.
However my plan has hit a snag. A new Bret Easton Ellis novel came out yesterday and I was able to snap up a copy along with "Spare" while I was at the library. "The Shards" is billed as a mash-up between "Less Than Zero" and "American Psycho." Rich kids in LA in the 1980's AND a serial killer on the loose. I am literally vibrating with anticipation.
Side note: I only personally know one other person who read "American Psycho" from start to finish (actually my brother-in-law) and I actually have read the whole book twice. And Bret Easton Ellis will be doing a bookstore appearance near me, so I am going to that as well.
Sorry to go off topic. Off to start reading.
- kind and so on and a lot of negative projection that others had toward him (always a distrust of them/their intentions until otherwise proven). It may only be less by comparison to the second half (which I have not read yet).
I am trying to be honest and point out both the nice moment/observation and then the ... less than kind. There is a lot of drinking going on and starting at an early age. The drugs.
I'm only about 44% through.
I found the that book review odd in that it did not call out the nastiness and bad character traits that emerged from an early age.
What I did find interesting is that the reviewer found a distinct change in tone and writing style once TBW entered the picture.
IMO, if he had not met and married her, he would have been a bomb waiting to explode in the royal family and would have done a lot more damage at every level.
This question should probably be posted on the other thread: did she stir up and incite the ugly parts of his character to emerge (and all the rest) as a simple narc move: isolate and control to get exactly what I want?
abbyh. thanks again for taking one for the team
mrs is quiet. so what next?
@snarkyathebest, yeah, Gen-X & Millennial males seem to be the ones who are making fun of Hazmat the most ruthlessly here in the USA. Any hope of marketing him as an outdoorsy 'man's man' here is pretty much done, I don't care how many Taliban he claims he shot. Can't see him with a metrosexual branding either. Maggot might be able to rebrand herself if she drops all the messianic stuff. Harry is more appealing than Maggot, because he seems more authentic, but that makes it harder to change his image.
Frankly, like most of us, I'm finding them tiresome. I'd rather follow Olive & Mabel, Andrew Cotter's adorable Labradors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPhpJuraz14
March 2011, meeting up with to try to make to the North Pole with soldiers who had lost limbs (names names). Delays due to bad weather so they do some training in anticipation but he missed the training about sweating makes your clothes turn to ice and he sweats the first day.
Frostbite to fingers and ears
I've done winter camping (not down as low as 30 below) but there are a lot of special clothes to help you which are well beyond just wool.
p 182
"But I also didn't feel like complaining."
He didn't get close before he leaves so the chopper takes him to the NP, he waves the Union Jack and gets to where he is to take a plane but the weather is bad it destroys the runway so he spends time with people (drinking vodka) and leaves eventually (doesn't remember how the runway was fixed).
Night before PW wedding, dinner at Clarence House PC, PW, 5 and James and Thomas
These two are the real best men because it is believed that 5 will go off the rails with a live mic (and he does later), but that it's to protect the two guys from having the press hound/hack .
what is not said is that anyone actually said let 5 take the pap hit, he's used to it so he has experience at being the goat
Todger frostbite (you knew it was coming at some point and soon)
he is not sure himself why he does not share that part of the I have frostbite on my body story with those men he is a lot closer to than us readers but he doesn't. He also talks about how his penis has had prior ink in the papers and that despite the comments, he was circumcised as a baby. Perhaps we need to know that part because he has been thwarted so often about how he isn't allowed to respond to what he feels is an unjust story.
PW (rum and is "tipsy")
riff about the uniforms, how down PW was that he was told by his granny (note that term, doesn't call her the queen here or that I remember earlier but it is his grandmother making these decisions, not the Queen having to make protocol decisions). So at any rate it is about how PW isn't able to wear what he wants (nor does 5).
PW regimental motto translates to: "Who shall separate us? there is a theme here about how he is losing someone again.
What would have added to the book was an explanation of what the different uniforms were (there are a lot described in the pages but not idea what this one looks like or that one or pictures). Or, why protocol dictates this but not that.
P 184
"Nothing like getting married in the same place where you did your mum's funeral."
again the motto but an observation that they enter as adults this time versus when they were just little kids.
This is a place of death, a lot of burials
They are waiting in a room called the crypt, PW is pacing, 5 makes a joke about all the people inside seated hours before and now needing to go to the bathroom. no laugh.
fears of losing the ring (not likely as he designed a special pocket for it in his uniform
ring is Welsh gold and that by now he fears there will not be enough for him to make a ring
Doesn't remember the service but remembers their leaving, "eternal partnership" and although he like C, motto, it still is another loss.
Complicated thought process where your identity is a really a hierarchy, your original child is pure, gets less so over time versus the wedding day where PW's is expanding now that he will have more versions of himself (maybe I didn't get this)
bottom line: still a loss
now 5 will be an "eunuch" because of his genital issues
his talk: press says he ran it by Chelsey (who was at the wedding) he did not but did with JLP
well, he gives a story about a Yank who decides to make a lovely garment for C which will need 1000 ermines but is only able to get 2 so it winds up being fur on a thong (and he pulls out the thong for all to see).
Ends his talk about Diana, she would love C and how she would love to be here (and doesn't look at his family when he's saying this about Diana)
I have a feeling that I'm not the only one!
I also would like to extend my thanks to Abby and my apologies to her family that must suffer through this episode because my stomach isn't strong enough to read it myself. My gag reflex has been stimulated enough, thank you, from your notes.
The wounded team finally makes it to the North Pole, he tells them he wishes he was with them but his todger says otherwise
scent of the EA creme brings him back to his mother but doesn't fix the problem.
decides to ask a friend for the name of a doctor because he knows that if he asks for help finding a doctor, getting an appointment that the palace will leak this
so ... he has no other doctors he's seen in the near past he could go back to?
note: this is a foreshadowing of the inability to find help for * when she needs it
sees some dermatologist who is stunned that 5 is actually in his office,
problems: "Sitting. Walking, sex, ... was out of the question." (unclear with whom)
doctor does an unexpectedly thorough exam and tells him this will take time. So not what he wants to hear.
the quest for the girl friend continues
Chelsey at the wedding, he is jealous
Florence aka Flea, very much interested but several problems
he's interested but someone in her family was the person who led all the people to their death in Charge of the Light Brigade which the deaths bother him as a soldier.
and the paps start hanging outside her place, her mother advises to cut it off
Contrast of she flipping out on the phone with 8 people outside and he's in Clarence House listening to the changing of the guard.
there is something about the fact that she has this in her family history. She has no control over the past, she does not benefit and yet it is a factor for him in some way as to how he seems to view this but he also really really likes her
Can't sleep which is not good when you fly apaches
sent to US to practice and then to Bodmin Moor (desolate) where they do escape and evasion ("evade enemy escape forbidding terrain" drill - dumped somewhere, no food, cold rain and told to get to a place 10 miles away via certain points. Phil becomes leader as he had spent summers at that moor, they spoon together in the cold rain "awkward", they succeed, 72 hours without sleep, get in a truck and are taken
first thought: Lord Mountbatten and the IRA
what happens next is not legal for Geneva but actually like what can really happen as a lot of places don't care about Geneva rules.
All kinds of things, kind, shoved about, made to be naked (teasing about the penises)
Go after Phil based on things they find on his social media
for 5, a woman comes in and starts into him about his mother dying pregnant with a Muslim baby
It all ends and they do the debrief
"Hard for us to find something about you that you'd be shocked we knew.
I didn't answer.
But that took it a bit too far.
Fair enough.
Two people he says went mad during this.
Well, the question of Diana pregnant still lives apparently. Everything I read was that he was a fun guy whose dad had all the money and his dad was kind to her, the kids in July but it was more about trying to make someone else jealous in August. Could she have been pregnant? technically I suppose. If she was, it would (as best) have been only a couple of weeks along.
p 196
Caribbean tour for The Queen March 2012
"She was, after all, my Commander." on being pulled away from training to go do this.
Belize
drinking toasts, cow-foot soup, a woman who hugs him, calling him Diana's baby and then faints
El Castillo - Mayan temple with royal bones = "A Mayan Westminster Abbey."
Bahamas
drink more toasts, forced to get in press boat when his sinks sees India Hicks (links to his mother) she explains why the sand is pink but he doesn't get it
Stadium with kids (kids are important, he became godfather to Marko's kid Jasper)
Jamaica
runs with Usain Bolt (wins but admits he cheated), dancing to Bob Marley
Plants a tree at most of these where normally people just show up, the tree is in the hole, you toss in a shovel of dirt, they take photos and that's it. He makes a point of insisting that they finish the dirt and then water the tree.
I think his father, Mr. Plant and Trees, would be proud.
p 198
gets good reviews, Granny (not as Queen but personal) "Marvelous. Well Done."
party hardy, celebrates, clubbing
Tweedle Dumb, Tweedle Dumber - two paps who are everywhere but not just follow but block assess to the car "Ruthless, more aggressive than other paps."
Bodyguards look into them (several homes but that could be that they are a landlord, we don't know, allegedly offshore accounts) and that his lifestyle is not as nice since he doesn't own a place. He wants to punch them but he realizes that's what they really want.
They are also a problem for PW. Unclear about C.
Begins to talk of how evil he thinks Murdoch is. He feels that after his people have been chasing him, then you two are not on the same moral ground.
Talks of having heard of royal inbreeding but that does not compare to press gaslighting. "Marrying your cousin is far less dicey than becoming a profit center for Murdoch, Inc."
He does not define press gaslighting or how he got there from just people holding a camera. That's a problem if you are trying to rally people to your defense that they are evil."
p 200
re: Murdoch politics "... just right of Taliban's..."
He uses this anger to help him ramp up for war.
doesn't cite examples which would be helpful since now this is on politics and not catching royals in embarrassing situations.
Meets Crissida at a music festival, intro by an unnamed cousin, dinner, she wants to be an actress, first kiss "painfully awkward", still works out well. Her flatmate is dating Charlie (Henner's brother). things well (mainly together on week ends) as he is ready to deploy
p 202
The Plan by his friends (a trip to Vegas, Carpe Diem and all that)
needs carpe diem as he is reminded of when his father fell from a horse and swallowed his tongue
Dr. Google says that is not quite right. You can't swallow it but it can block the airway, pressing against the soft palate, personally I would also be thinking about head/neck injuries as well
Vegas - repeating a bit of what was done before, does not remember a whole lot except different meals, gambling "But people keep handing me drinks."
Wants a tattoo but only remembers that the body guards said no
They go to some place, he watches his friends talk to women while he thinks about the tattoo of Botswanna on his foot that he wants, they return to the hotel, somehow some female black jack player ("dodgy" according to him but what ever he's not fussing about it) join them, it's 2 am and suddenly why not play strip pool? He loses everything and he thinks that's the end of it.
he says it was one of the blackjack girls who took the photo and sold it.
Guilt, headlines like The Return of Hooray Harry (actually some books for kids about an elephant named Harry) or Prince Thicko Strikes Again (I would think that someone would have unearthed those headlines at some point with all the dissecting of the book but nothing - no pictures)
He flees to Balmoral where all the family are. Plus the soon to arrive anniversary about Diana's death.
PC is "gentle" about this and claims he was never naked in the papers but 5 reminds us that it not right. When 5 was 8, a German paper snapped PC naked and published them.
Anyway, they find "common ground" in that they both "felt naked."
p 200
Getting naked playing pool and having your picture taken while you use your helmet to cover yourself becomes a thing.
None of his guards are punished because he does not let out that they were actually with him.
Sept 2012 Camp Bastion
pilots are treated like "royalty", best is that he's gone up in rank since last he was over there.
Just before his 28th birthday, they go under attack at the camp, he has his body guards there, sirens, get on body armor, a Scot starts flipping out a bit, described as Sean Connery in a "panic" and 5 tells him to cut it out
they get the all clear
a couple of deaths, more injured
p 208
Taliban had "acquired some American uniforms, put a hole in the fence and slipped into the camp to find and kill 5. They knew all about where he was and chose his birthday (thanks to media telling them where he was)
talks of the days of waiting for a call to jump in an apache and start it up. But the waiting is long and boring (some magazines - Loaded was a favorite of the guys - think pictures of girls I gather). He works with Dave in a two man team. 5 is never certain if 5 is joking or not with him.
they get a call (not very clear here) but one of the lights goes off and do you pull back or not? Dave chooses to (apparently there are some lights they just take the fuse out so they don't have to see that it's still on). Some can be ignored but others not.
"I felt cheated." refers back Flea's family history of Charge of the Light Brigade.
"Ours is not to reason why ... Unto the breech."
poetry again.
They are not a group which mess around.
IDK, does he sound gloaty? matter of fact?
I wonder about that pilot - how might they feel that they were being told to follow the future king and then abort that as a target and hit the barn over there instead?
I am looking forward to hearing about the rise of Invictus and how that goes.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced in an emotional press briefing that she will step down, saying "it's time."
Ardern said Thursday she will not be seeking reelection this year and that her term will end by Feb. 7.
also in US a woman is claiming VG sexually abused her and groomed/recruited girls for Epstein. Hmmm this doesn’t seem to want to go away.
finally. saw daily mail has an article about designing a bench for the coronation. Montecito here’s a chance for cross branding. have archie is well submit his best design. do i hear book sequel?
I have kept a far distance from the toxic pile that is Spare. The Montecito traitors are so vile and beyond contempt that even Jesus Enrique Rosas doesn’t want to infect his channel with them anymore.
So it’s beyond dispute that Hawwy, far from being a lovestruck vulnerable empath, a lost boy clinging to the illusion of a soul bond with his California actress is as sociopathic, narcissistic, nasty, cruel, brain damaged and beyond redemption as his wife. Neither of them have an ounce of self-awareness. In the early days, we assumed that Hawwy was the victim of a grifting opportunist when he thought he was genuinely in love, but the Harkles are matching pieces of work who deserve each other.
Both are victims all right—of faulty genetics…prenatal deprivation of some sort…early childhood neglect from the maternal figure… Who is “to blame” when a child comes out defective to the degree these two are? Doria—a habitual drug user and largely absent figure for nearly all of her daughter’s formative years. The sainted Diana…struggling with mental disorders, eating disorders… extreme emotional stress. Who knows what crucial formative building blocks her second baby did not receive in the womb and during his infancy? I don’t believe that people turn out “bad” for absolutely no reason. There is always a reason, and usually the badness has its foundation and a wounded and helpless child who did not get what he or she needed to develop properly. Neither of the mothers or the fathers truth be told in this dysfunctional partnership got exactly what they needed to become fully integrated individuals either.
This is the TRUE Hawwy we are seeing now… The Hawwy his family have always known, but hoped they could manage in contained channels. He is their Pandora’s box… Their Covid virus, running amok in the world and beyond containment without extreme measures. God help us all, but especially Charles and William. Hawwy is a plague on their house. Did they always fear this? Even as a toddler, Hawwy was an unsettling force. They didn’t deal with the rancid weed When it was young, and now they have to pay the consequences.
Talk about genetic pain, eh?
In the memoir, he claims that she received no security training at all (as described in FF), and that there was talk of not providing her with security.
Did Scobie make it all up (in detail)? Since he sent a copy to their office to be checked before publishing, why was the error left to stand?
As for 24/7 security, the Princess Royal, the Countess of Wessex, the Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra are all full-time working royals and only get taxpayer-funded security when on engagements. But TBW required full security all the time, wherever she was in the world (including jetting off to New York for a baby shower while pregnant and then again to watch a tennis match when she had a newborn).
Great to have you back!
Yep, my belief of him essentially being a good guy who was captured and brainwashed by a toxic narc has now gone. I now believe that even if he had never met her and remained a working royal, he was a really bad scandal waiting to happen ... much worse than Andrew.
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I am not surprised that the book has sold well ... almost double what the publisher needed to make a profit and justify the deal they signed with him. The publisher does not care about the monarchy or him, and if they can make a profit destroying both, they will gladly do so. That is what that stupid nasty prince has not realized about every deal he has made.
It will be interesting to see how the paperback does, what the shelf life of the book is, and if piles start turning up in second-hand stores and remainder stores (how many booksellers are left with piles of copies they can't sell to the public, even with massive discounts?).
Brava Hikari
Said it all 👏
When H said he had material for an 800 page book, many claimed he was blackmailing RF, which led me to another question; why did H believe he was in a position to blackmail RF? Which led me to think that H was absolutely certain that his narrative would be widely accepted by a good part of the public opinion, which would have a lot of support from the awakened ones and from the left and anti-monarchist media. And that this support would be so great that it would require the RF to respond to the popular appeal and, consequently, would put the duo in a position to make their demands. You can only blackmail someone when your position is superior. When you have the power to make demands. So H believed that Spare would put him in that superior position.
"Gordon spent several hours with the Duke and Duchess at their home in Montecito, California, ahead of the book’s publication and, as revelations from the memoir first emerged online, witnessed his disappointment as it was scrutinised.
The meeting came ahead of a series of interviews broadcast over the last week amid a publicity blitz.
https://archive.is/2023.01.13-182913/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/01/13/prince-harry-book-two-spare-revelations-royal-family/
Taliban: The man who fought bravely and who now even his military uniform can't wear anymore. Hero narrative.
Todger and other anecdotes: rescuing the image of the playful, humorous H that the palace so well built its public image in this way.
Meghan: (written by her): reaffirm the beautiful love story between them. Diana-approved soulmates. The mythical woman, sensitive and, of course, superior to PsoW.
...
Spare - post publication: public and media.
It proved to be a profound disaster in both the UK and the US.
Much of it from H.'s own interviews.
...
So, why did H believe that his narrative would be accepted, loved and would cause pressure in the RF, to the point where he publicly asked the RF to apologize to MM?
Harry, in Spare, shows, reveals what I've always suspected of him. He has some cognitive impairment or a serious personality disorder. He lives in a world full of fantasy, filled with the desire for greatness and perfection through his mental fantasies, where he sees himself, through his imagination, in an idealized world.
As he believes in his fantasies and in this fictitious world he has created in his mind, he ends up lying to others and, what is worse, to himself. Lying too much is a sign of an illness that needs to be treated.
It's worth remembering that in the OW interview, the duo provoked a reaction from the queen and the PW. Now, with Spare British Monarchy did not even need to respond. And that only reinforces the duo's downfall among their own supporters. They are losing power and public opinion. Just wondering if they are noticing and yes, what will they do next?
...
Why such success as Spare, NF series and Spotify? (I have high doubts here) Because what really makes success is the British Monarchy, talking about it, gossip about senior royalty. When H&M breaks out of that narrative as Live to Lead, it's a total flop. It is the British Monarchy that promotes the duo's success!
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I just saw the interview of one italian Spare's translator. She said 2 interesting thinghs:
1. The traslation work was stopped during the queen's funeral. The traslator and her collegues thought that the book would be pulled, but after some weeks they received the order to continue their work
2. They have received 9 versions of the book, she explained that were asked to change some details such as the decoration of the fireplace and the colour of the tiles.
https://at.tumblr.com/anonymoushouseplantfan/ciao-plant-i-just-saw-the-interview-of-one/pd3nt556navl
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What do you think? A copy editor doing some fact checking? But they left hapless to dangle in the wind on his own when it came to conversations he repeated or accusations of what reporters, staff and his family did. It seems very odd to me, because he has given numerous people grounds for being sued for defamation.
There is deep disappointment in the comments of the CEOs of two biggest bookstores in my country and the public libraries have all been ordering only one (!) copy of the book for their customers so it will be interesting to read about "Stunning International Success" of Spare!
As for another book, how much more over-sharing can Todger do?
Salman Rushdie published the Satanic Verses in 1988. A fatwa was called on him shortly after. Rushdie went into hiding for the 1990s, finally being attacked and losing an eye in 2022, 34 years later.
Memories are long, Todger.
Somebody ought to write a novel about it...
In the book, what I noticed was that in several situations, if there was some sort of situation where he was "higher/stronger or is more powerful" to his brother in that situation, there is an undertone of pleasure to it.
At one point, the two brothers meet up and 5 is of higher rank (because PW went to college and delayed military entry). The gist pointedly was that now my brother cannot treat me as he did at Eton, he cannot ignore my, my comments, my existence because to do so is insubordination.
Not sure if I mentioned this one or not, The night before PW is to be married, he wants to go out as see the people. Security says no. He "begs", doesn't ask, but "begs" 5 to join him.
And we all remember the comment which was something along the lines of What * wants ... was said to be said by him.
I don't know a lot about the Army, how it works, the paths one must follow to go here, go there (makes reading the book harder for me because I don't know/understand if there is sub-context to be picked up. So ... part (I think) about moving up has to do with leadership and being a good leader. What we don't know is what opportunities he had to demonstrate leadership and how that would have played out. So, if there had been some experiences which could have gone better, then it might have tied the hands of the Army decision makers tighter (meaning harder to block movement upward).
IDK, if he was having difficulty managing people (in ways similar to the Queen, his father or brother) but it may not have been really obvious to anyone because the contact was fairly limited and opportunities limited as well. Perhaps it may not have been an issue in the day to day palace world until there until she became part of the dynamics. Up until that point (or so it might appear) he didn't have a lot of reasons to appear to show that he was powerful to the gray suits he was not fond of (if he didn't see much of them) and/or that he might not have been doing a whole lot (and that which he was, might have been more of meet somewhere else). And now, she would be wanting to take a more active role so he might have wanted to be part of that push forward. When leads back to everyone working a lot closer together.
I don't know. That is a lot of unknowns and hard to trace dotted lines from this or that incident.
On a different thought, remember Clevr Blends? * is an investor. Haven't heard about that in a while. It is a privately held firm so no ideas on the financials. I was starting to think of taxes and in trying to avoid thinking of ours, I was thinking about how they made a point of making * and not the pair named with it. It may be just she was more the image they wanted while he was more unknown but ... I don't know CA tax law but CA is a community property state. If she invested in Clevr with money before marriage, he would have limited claim to it (possible at best would be a portion of any increased value). Tax season is starting. (NF - season 2?).
The funny thing is that Andrew Morton’s book about The Queen was next to it and people had placed stacks of Morton’s Queen book on top of Harry’s book so that the mugshot of his face on the cover was covered. You’d have to look for the title on the spine of the book to know Spare was there:-)
Meghan stays in the shadows as Prince Harry flies solo on Spare publicity blitz
Victoria Ward
Since leaving the Royal Family, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have preferred to appear as a pair.
“We’re like salt and pepper,” Meghan opined in an interview. “We always move together.”
Recent months have seen the couple release their six-part Netflix documentary series, Harry & Meghan (promoted by seemingly endless trailers), followed by a joint, high-profile appearance at a glitzy event in New York where they accepted a human rights award.
Even when projects have been helmed by the Duchess, such as her Archetypes podcast, which was accompanied by wide-ranging interviews with The Cut magazine and Variety, Prince Harry has popped up in a supporting role.
Whether making a cameo appearance during her conversation with Serena Williams, juggling at the window in her 40th birthday video or joining children at a New York school when she was promoting her own book, The Bench, the Duke has always been on hand to lend his name to his wife’s endeavours.
He joined her for the second half of the Oprah Winfrey interview and “appeared from somewhere in the house” to tell the journalist from The Cut that Meghan had complained after her photoshoot that she was a mom not a model. “You can be both,” he said.
Similarly, the Duchess popped up in the Duke’s Apple TV+ docu-series about mental health and a promo video for the Invictus Games.
But, since Christmas, Prince Harry has been left to soak up the limelight alone.
As he embarked on an unprecedented publicity blitz to promote his memoir, Spare, this month, Meghan has remained below the radar - and sent a clear message: This is Harry’s project, not mine.
As with anything to do with the Sussexes, there has been much sniping and speculation online about the Duchess’s perceived influence.
The book has Meghan’s fingerprints all over it, some have claimed, her voice throughout is unmistakable, she is the puppetmaster pulling the strings.
But in fact, such claims could not be further from the truth.
While the Duchess has backed her husband to the hilt over this deeply personal outpouring, she was not quite the driving force behind the project that many have assumed.
Sources suggest that media-savvy Meghan was slightly more circumspect about the concept of a memoir and may have raised gentle concerns about whether it was the right move.
No stranger to taking on her enemies, she is understood to have been more wary than the Duke about this particular project.
Prince Harry, burning with resentment towards his father, his brother and the press, was fuelled by a bitter determination to right the wrongs of his past, but his wife took a broader view.
That said, once Harry had made up his mind and embarked on the two-year process with ghostwriter JR Moehringer, the Duchess is said to have offered her full support and is immensely proud of his achievements.
“Is this the way she would have approached things? Possibly not,” said one source. “But she will always back him and would never have got involved in promoting such a personal project.
“This was about his own life, his own journey and his own perspective.”
The memoir, released on January 10, became the fastest-selling non-fiction book on record, and the biggest-selling memoir in its first week of publication, shifting 750,000 copies in its first week in the UK alone.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/meghan-stays-shadows-prince-harry-221256789.html
If you want to read about the first two dates, they are posted at the above link.
They keep changing their story, and we can never trust what they say, but the name Violet is mentioned.
She is so pushy and she moved this relationship along at lightning speed, controlling him all the way. Soho House features prominently.
From what I recall of No 1 husband's army career, his annual appraisal placed a high value on `Leadership' and how an officer got on with subordinates, equals and higher-ranking officers. `Zeal' was also a quality which was assessed. I imagine it was soon established that H'd never get beyond being a subaltern.
The `johari square' may have become known from the early 1950s but I gather that there was a ?Prussian general of the 18th or 19thC who rated his officers by intelligence v.stupidity and active v.lazy:
Intelligent & active = have potential to be high-ranking officers
Intelligent & lazy = useful 2i/cs (can see ways of achieving objectives efficiently)
Stupid & lazy = never going to cause major problems if managed appropriately
Stupid & active= the dangerous ones, the loose cannons.
It's easy to see where H fits in.
doing a kill, checks with feelings and it's a job. Questions if "callus" but it is how you look at these people trying to kill our people.
213
another kill but this time the person is on a motorbike, someone (not named)
"Did it factor into your feelings that these killers were on motorbikes? The chosen vehicle of paps all over the world?"
He links it back to Diana and the chase in the tunnel
The wording, paps, knowing his feelings about them and how it ties into his mother and his own experiences - don't know who this person might be that they could be able to ask him that. He doesn't seem to have close friends or, he doesn't name them.
p 214
another attack and links it to playing "PlayStation". Direct Hotel means Direct Hit
Aim for the spokes not the head of the person as that it is more likely to be a hit
And, he became very good at this
p 216
difficulty getting permission to shoot to kill
they witness an attack on one of their lorries and can't get the ok to do a 429 Alpha
which is a go after someone who was seen doing X to us
"At times we felt the commander was right: we were creating more Taliban"
Squadron leader would review all film of their actions
the person is described as jealous that they were not doing this so this would explain why they were looking for any mistakes made but also willing to admit that there could be concerns of innocent killed in error (legitimate and possible).
I think that this may have a ring of his voice in a way which could be helpful to then view current behavior towards his family
bold is my insertion
p 217
most soldiers don't know/perhaps want to know their kill stat.
"So, my number: Twenty-five. It wasn't a number that gave me any satisfaction. But neither was it a number that made me fell ashamed. Naturally, I'd have preferred not to have that number on my military CV, on my mind, but by the same token I'd have have preferred to live in a world in which there is no Taliban, a world without war. Even for an occasional practitioner of magical thinking, like me, however, some realities just can't be changed."
"While in the heat and fog of combat, I didn't think of those twenty-five as people. you can't really harm people if you think of them as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bads taken away before they could kill Goods. I'd been trained to "other-ize" them, trained well. On some level I recognized this learned detachment as problematic. But I also saw it as an unavoidable part of soldiering."
"Another reality that couldn't be changed."
Christmas 2012, leaving
thinking of shots not taken and a missed opportunity to save some Gurkas pinned down
"I regretted the job not being finished.
Most of all, I regretted that it was time to leave."
exit interview with some reporter
stunned on both sides
R: that 5 had not only shot at people, he had killed some
5: "What did he think we were doing over here? selling magazine subscriptions?"
on PW and C - C is pregnant
"The deserve to have their baby in peace, I said."
tabs. PC is against buying the papers, 5 admits he does do this
riff about the falsehoods printed and the people who read it and believe it true
"negativity bias", genetic and, "That's what the bloody papers count on, I wanted to say."
There are over 180 biases. Placebo, belief bias, Negativity is genetic in that we do notice the negative, we especially notice it because we need it to keep us alive (ex: rattlesnake) BUT it also influences your worldview/thinking which is different than a pessimistic bias. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/humans-cognitive-bias-mistake/
I am not certain exactly that what he is describing as negative bias is that (he does not define it). Perhaps projection bias?
p 219
mandated decompression, allotted 2 beers, doesn't like beer so he gives it away
fallout from the press article about the kills begins to fall
I am assuming that it is that Violet. The version of the first date in the book is, basically:
She was acquainted with Violet, as was he.
While checking Violet's IG, he came across a post of hers.
He was so taken with that one photo that he contacted her (sent her a private message? how? how did she know he was who he said he was? or was there sime cinversatiin with Violet?) and arranged a date.
She chose time and place and decided it would be for drinks.
I think that in every version of the story they leave out crucial details. But, it is clear from his memoir that she called the shots from the beginning. I think he was looking for a mummy (wild theory). I have come across two videos where Diana was reprimanding hapless, quite sternly. That alone was not enough to get him hooked, but it was significant.
@abbyg
Thanks for the updates!
texting Cressida, wants to get together but doesn't see her for a week and that is with others at a dinner friend Arthur, she shows with with Eugenie,
different appearance which is "off-putting" or even possible "frightening"
they restart the relationship as if from the beginning
Continuing to work for Army, bored at desk job, they won't let him return to war, feels no purpose to his life,
March 2013 palace wants him for an official US tour to promote recovery in USA and British soldiers, fine as long as no one mentions Vegas assurances they won't
which is the first thing mentioned in the book
how NJ Governor Chris Christie teases him by giving him a something to keep warm and mentioning that no one would lose their clothes after visiting him for a day
5 remarks about how "stout" CC is as a comeback
Earlier in the tour he met Obamas, Arlington, wreath at Unknown Soldier
USA tradition that he lay wreath with a white gloved soldier, then they lay their hand on the wreath for the length of a heart beat (moving to him)
Colorado Warrior Games - the idea that he could do this
start with asking the Palace
"...felt I had accrued some political capital. ...Britons seemed to have a generally positive view of the Spare."
p 223
Early summer 2013
Starts the pitch process with Royal Foundation (which covered projects for PW, 5 and C)
since it was ours, that was helpful, they have 7 million pounds
Time good as well, nothing really scheduled as C was pregnant with George July 22, 2013
pitch to board, yes
hears from PW, "sorely irritated"
not happy that he was not told first
5 says he thought others would tell PW
not certain why 5 thought others would be the ones to pitch it to PW
afraid it would take all the money
5 only a half million pound grant and that was from the Endeavor fund (to help soldiers
recovery) and from donors and sponsors
5 realizes this is really just sibling rivalry
"Hadn't we got past this yet? ... Wasn't it a bit late in the day for that childhood dynamic?"
"But even if it wasn't, even if Willy insisted on being competitive, on turning our brotherhood into some kind of private Olympiad hadn't he built up an insurmountable lead? He was married, with a baby on the way, while I was eating take away alone over the sink."
"Pa's sink! I still lived with Pa."
"Game over, man. You win."
How you chose to live your life is your quality of life based on your resources at the time and your choices of like/dislike. If you don't want to sit at a table and eat a meal on a plate, that's your choice. When he was living with his brother, his father would send over meals.
late summer 2013
"...I was in trouble, toggling between bouts of debilitating and terrifying panic attacks."
first trigger: putting on a suit
very sensitive to heat (Sandringham dining room was always over heated - he or PC would open a window only to have the corgis bark that they were cold so the Queen would have the window shut
at one reception, he was certain that was what people were talking about
he stays at receptions only as long as he has to
staying home, eating takeaways, binging 24 and Friends,
unnamed friends are telling him that he's not like himself
Dr Google to try to figure out what is going on but not making the connection to other soldiers talking about their exact problems matching his
Disconnected that it is PTSD,
likens it to a war which he says started in Aug 1997
p 226
Clarence House
on the phone with Thomas (Henner's brother) when Thomas is mugged, 5 hears it and he and body guards to out to find Thomas. They do and help him that night.
"What friend are for."
p 227
Wattisham airfield in a desk job he hated, bored, doesn't want to be an instructor teaching about apaches
wants to return to the war, Afghanistan is decreasing while Libya is increasing but told repeatedly no
"Everyone has had quite enough of Harry in a war zone."
(why if he has PTSD, returning to active duty might not be a good idea)
now living at KP in lower ground floor so "half underground"
3 tall windows but still not a lot of light
Upstairs a couple with kids (the R's)
two beefs with them
Mr R would park his car (4.8 m or almost 16 feet) so that it blocked what little light he got, tried to get Mr R to move it slightly and the guy became angry enough that he complained to the Queen
Mrs R dumped cut hair from one of the kids out the window where the wind blew it into his open windows when a friend was over and they were drinkign
but the real egregious fault was that she parked in Diana's old parking spot
"It as wrong of me, and I knew it was wrong but on some level I condemned Mrs. R for it."
apparently wrong enough to include it though. And this with the previous section about the sibling rivalry being all PW. Who really comes off as petty, keeping score?
The quote about PW and C having a baby,
s/b They not The
Elsewhere I saw it suggested that Harold is not bitter because he is the spare but because with the arrival of the Cambridge children he is that no longer. In short he has been let go, he has been made redundant, he should sign on the dole. His concern therefore for the Cambridge children is thus concerning that were I William and Kate I would keep Harry and Meghan as far away from the children as possible.
As for yacht girls I had a girlfriend who had done a little yachting. She was young and being in a distant location by the sea and having met some wealthy men had with a couple of her female friends been invited for the weekend on to a yacht which would sale out of coastal waters and watch the whales and the like. Naturally she was expected (if she wanted a further invite) to sleep with one or other of the men. She said she did it for the sex but quickly grew tired of it and acquired a serious boyfriend. I suspect that this sort of thing is far more common than it is polite to admit. Never fazed me. Was it prostitution? If so prostitution is on a sliding scale.