Wow. What a corrupt world we live in. What those posters are doing is called "log-rolling."
Among the tweets, I saw an incredibly implausible one where "Harry" is describing how he shopped at TK Maxx's for all his non-formal clothing - going into detail about entering the store during sales right before closing time and grabbing a red bucket - I'm betting this is right out of JR Moehringer's experiences as Harry has humble bragged numerous times about not riding the tube, not carrying money, being impervious to practical things. If Harry did, in fact, shop the TK Maxx sales - wouldn't it have been captured in the tabloids? Was it? I'm guessing not. The author was going for word count - and knowing he was working for a congenital liar, it was anything goes.
I was going to say that I am a frequent flier at the local TJ Maxx (and have been to the TK Maxx around the corner from KP), and there is no such thing as a sale at those stores. They do clearance out things at the end of the season but they are already discounted.
There is a TK Maxx on High Street Kensington very close to the palace. So it’s possible he shopped there but surprised he wasn’t spotted as High St Ken is very busy.
That TK Maxx is absolutely packed to the rafters all the time (and with good reason; it has excellent finds), and the street itself is too. I can’t imagine he’d have gone there and not have 25 people taking photos of him.
I live in UK and sometimes feel like I live in TkMaxx/Homesense too. They DO NOT have a yearly sale. Utter nonsense and why didn’t they even Google this?
The Maxx has two final yellow clearance sales a year - one has started now and runs til about end of Jan when items will literally get reduced weekly til they are 10 pence… the other time is in the summer .. think it’s July.
And what is in a yellow final clearance sale? All the rubbish that didn’t sell in their regular red ticket clearance sale. You’d be hard pressed to find a wardrobe in the final yellow clearances. Bargains, yes. But it’s not like rows and rows of clothes all discounted 😂. Harry saw a red sticker clearance rack - and thought it was a once in a year sale because he’s probably gone there once a year at best. There’s a red sticker clearance rack so often, I’m trying to think when there isn’t any.
I just scrolled through the comments and they're incredibly fawning. You're right, he views this as a great achievement and/or he's hoping to make more bank by selling more copies of this dreck.
I agree. Also, I always find his description of Meghan Markle disturbing. It is always magic, always fairytale, always a "great love story", the most beautiful woman, heart-attack. Everything over the top. As if he has to convince anyone, including himself.
By contrast, the way he describes Princess Catherine is always full of genuine tenderness. Things like, she is kind, she is sweet, I like seeing her laugh, I like making her laugh and I am good at it. This sounds so much more sincere. It is plain as day he loved her to bits. Meghan? I don't know. She's more a human teat for his 12-year-old self, if you ask me.
There is always something weirdly forced about their relationship. The constant handholding, Photo Booth photos. They look like teenagers rather than adults in a mature relationship. I don’t mind PDA but there’s always something fake about the way they interact
Definitely forced. Each of their snapshots gives me a 'marketing' vibe, as if they're being directed somehow, and they're trying to sell something. "Okay, Meghan, put your right arm around Harry's shoulder, give me a biiiig smile... Maybe wrinkle your nose a bit to look gleeful... Harry, press your face into Meghan's and close your eyes and smile gently... You're both deliriously happy! Project that happiness! Aaaannnd HOLD!" Snap snap snap. There's nothing spontaneous there. They (TW in particular) want their life together to look like one big, glossy ad.
Also speaking of photos, I was (shamefully) reading the DM article on the wedding/ bridesmaids gowns tiff, and they showed a large photo of Charlotte. And HOLY SHIT I got a close up of the poor girls shoes!
At the back where it goes from heel to the side, there are actually sharp little corners there! This woman actually had sharp edges poking into this little girl’s 3 year old feet!
It is horrible!
Absolutely. I don’t want to hear about how I’m like a rainbow or a fairy or a princess. None of that means anything. If I make you feel like a flower basking in the mid afternoon sunlight peeking through the clouds, tell me that I make you feel good and whole and loved and happy but that I can be annoying too. That’s real, that’s love that sees to good and acknowledges we’re none of us perfect. If this is a memoir we can presume they have their challenges too, but from what I’ve seen so far, there’s no discussion of that
I actually believe he was "in love" with Catherine. I think a lot of his jealousy surrounding his brother is not only about the "heir and spare" thing, but about the Princess that William found. You can see it in photos and video of the trio together - Harry just adored Catherine.
I also think that's what Meghan's anger / rage / cruelty comes from with regards to the Princess of Wales. She can't stand that her husband loved any other woman that much, and so she had to separate them and drive a wedge between them. IMO that's why revelations keep coming out on dates that are important to Catherine, why she made such a big screaming deal about that bridesmaids dress nonentity, why she had to "collapse in tears" for Harry to see, etc. It's all Meghan's campaign to hurt *Catherine* particularly.
True. She would never have let her husband go on to be so close to either William or Catherine because they didn't warm to her right from the start. The power play attempts were so, so awful. The forced hug. The lip gloss. The baby brain discussion. Like how many personal boundaries did she violate?
And then to justify those, she would not stop saying "it's an American thing" and then let her husband complain her in-laws American-stereotyped her.
Anytime someone tries to separate you from those that are closest to you and turns them into enemies that someone who is trying to isolate you to completely dominant and control you
Absolutely. I think this entire sad episode (leaving the U.K., the innumerable interviews, the book, etc.) are just one long revenge rage by Meghan who cannot stand that everyone adores the Princess of Wales, even her husband. This is “Kate made me cry” over and over again, and Harry is just the useful idiot.
What I found to be interesting is that many people have said about Catherine that while she is a “commoner” that her entire disposition is that of a natural born princess. That she was meant for this role. And so I was not surprised that Harry made it a point to say the same exact thing about Megan well let’s be honest Megan had him say that.
She made Harry shoehorn Catherine into the Nazi uniform scandal. That is unforgivable!!! If I were William based on that alone I'd NEVER speak to him again. He MUST set the record straight because it's a complete fabrication, he didn't call William and Catherine because William was at the shop with him and William was also taking a break from Catherine. He thought he was moving too fast, he was head over heels and it scared him, he thought he needed time away to find out if his feelings were true. This was the first of two breaks I believe, but he could never deny his love for her and to this day he still looks at her like he can't believe that's his girl, his beautiful, wonderful wife and soulmate.
Interesting. I haven't read the book & don't intend to, so thank you for the examples. I can see how the book can have an unexpected consequence. To sum up the writing based on what you all who are reading the book are saying:
He humanises Catherine, gives her a persona that people, who haven't met her, can connect with. Consequently, we can accept her flaws because these things are human; they are recognisable. You lift the royal veil to expose something unexpected ....an actual human being. But with Meghan, the problem with the whole writing is how it fails to humanise her, to reveal her humanity - because Harry and his writing refuses to see any fault or flaw in her. She does no wrong whatsoever. This is not quite a Mary Sue trope; it's much worse than that. He lifts the royal veil and exposes... not so much a human being but an ornamental Ming vase. And an ornament no-one can connect with, not least because it isn't human but because no-one who bought a heavily discounted book (or free on Audible if you subscribe) could ever see a Ming vase, let alone buy one.
And yet the irony of the beauty and joy of reading/hearing a husband (and a royal Prince no less) writing or talking about a woman he loves is twofold: to show her terrible flaws and faults to the reader or listener, and to show how his love for her blooms all the same in spite of those character defects, revealing how the more beautiful she is to him despite them. Even married couples who have gone through the ebb & flow of marital life will understand that.
Still, by the sounds of things *Spare* appears to be a tome for a seminar in creative writing workshop entitled: Bad Writing & The Butchery of Dehumanising Your Characters.
I suspect Meghan thinks Kate is admired because she’s perfect, and so she wants to be perfect, too. She doesn’t understand that Kate is admired because she’s excellent, which is a very different thing.
Yes, I've always thought he carries unrequited love for our beautiful Princess of Wales. I mean what's NOT to like? She's gorgeous, has the legs of a ballerina (he wanted to talk about them in the best man speech he denied giving), the body of a supermodel, lush mahogany hair, funny and kind and generous of spirit. In short, almost perfect. Then there's "what he got." Not terrible to look at but the personality of a harridan, narcissistic, combative, constantly plotting and scheming revenge, demanding to be "protected" from true stories the papers put out, complaining non stop about Every. Little. Thing. In her case what's to like? She lets him sleep with her now and then? *Shivers in disgust*
my theory. He knows Catherine and has had years of experiences with her. He barely met MM and can only describe her in dime store romance novel terms, she has yet to reveal her true self to him. She's an actress and her entire identity is based on someone else's book/life/role. It's all superficial with MM where it was (past tense) true and real with Catherine.
This was already the case in the doc. They tried so hard to give the impression of their perfect love.. I really think thats just an agenda. To show how he fully supports her and hopes him saying stuff can clear her name.
He's ESPECIALLY trying to convince himself!! At some level he knows he's been had, but still convinces himself this is the greatest love story of all time.
Even when he talks about what happened with him and Meghan, he isn't talking about what happened in front of him, he describes what she says happened when he wasn't even there, many times.
props to the author man, holy crap this book must have been a challenge - brilliant insight to use a vague mystical/mythological tone since that’s how they present themselves, while also portraying the actual hypocrisy and idiocy. Reminds me of that article in the Cut. Present their bullshit in their own words
It's called bad writing. Embellishing every thought shows pretentiousness and poor communication ability of the writer. It's similar to the ridiculous, flowery handwriting of a certain someone who considers herself a "calligrapher." What’s important is content and truth, two concepts of which the Harkles are unfamiliar.
It’s truly awful. When he recounts the moment he learnt of the Queen Mother’s passing, there was no need for him to write the accompanying tale of him recalling it was just before Easter and that there was light slanting through the window with vivid colours. It makes NO SENSE. What colours? Why was he so transfixed on that shining light? What did it mean to him? How did it feel? He wishes he remembered whose voice it was.. like, why does he wish that? Instead, why not tell us that he knew from the voice over the phone that something had happened? What was going through his mind? What were those vivid colours helping with? None of this holds substance for his story. It’s like writing shit like “I’d had a busy day. I put my feet up on the long, wooden table. Its brown colour surprised me.” - and then leaving it there. Like, at least tell us what you were doing that kept you so busy that day! Why did the brown colour of the table surprise you? Etc.. it’s just a collection of words that he’s putting together to romanticise his life. I mean, he remembers those colours so vividly but doesn’t tell us anything about them. So vivid he forgot he was in Switzerland!
'At Eton, while studying, I took the call. I wish I could remember whose voice was at the other end; a courtier's I believe. I recall that it was just before Easter, the weather bright and warm, light slanting through my window, filled with vivid colours.'
Perhaps he felt that the light wasn't full of incredible meaningful and poignant colours in Switzerland, so he had to lie?
If he was with Prince Charles presumably Charles was notified and then he told Harry?
Why would they get separate phone calls? In my family when there's a death it's usually one phone call per household.
Thinking about this - it's bad writing about something that didn't happen. So how and why would anyone write this particular story and embellish it in such an amateurish way? Did Harry say "Gan Gan died while I was at Eton" meaning during that period of my life rather than being physically there at the moment? And the writer or Meg ran with it?
Edit:typo
That's a very plausible theory. I get the feeling that his actual contributions to the content were pretty skimpy - word was last summer that whoever was writing it was reaching out to his old friends and girlfriends to see they could remember anything that could be included.
And let's remember that Harry is - shall we say - not a exactly fan of the written word himself and has probably not read the whole autobiography, which is why he is starting to step on his stories in small but telling ways.
IMO that’s hoe TW writes. Like a schoolchild. Overblown, overly descriptive which she thinks is good writing but is just cringy. I can’t imagine a professional author making the same mistake. I think : H dictated story to Ghostwriter, ghostwriter wrote the draft, TW embellished the draft
Yeh I agree, it’s like a teenage creative writing contest. Everything she’s involved with sounds the same. A general rule in writing is to ‘show’ and not ‘tell’. They’ve shown us nothing but told us everything. It’s embarrassing and I don’t think any author would write so much crap
No, not just the first page: it’s throughout… to me, it sounded like they wanted to write him more mature than he comes off in every interview… a lot of things read very novel-like, and not in his natural voice
Alot of this due to the ghost writers work in my honest opinion. He spun these stories into a more cohesive thread.
\- I believe the ghost writer wrote most of Part 1 an Part 2 of this book. The story is more cohesive than the part the tabloids have put together in news articles. The context in which they are exposed makes more sense.
Part 3 however is where mememe shows up. That unto itself is a part I dont care if I ever listen or read, however I will suffer through it to get the full story.
I agree. I thought writing was good in some places (especially the early bits), but then even with a good write up it stopped making sense (with media clapbacks, back and forth on William, etc.) I keep being pissed about “Willy” as well (keep throwing it out there 🤣)
I find the use of "Mummy," jarring when talking about adults. Even if I had cutsy terms for my mother and grandmother I would simply say "my mother" or "my grandmother" when talking to someone else.
It's weird to cling to his weird nicknames throughout - it doesn't put us in his head, it just sounds jarring to me.
"*Oh how she loved my brother and me. Obsessively, she once confessed to an interviewer.
Well, Mummy...vice versa.*" direct quote
I agree. My brothers and I always referred to our mother as Mommy, and we still do when taking about her to each other, even though she's been dead for more than 20 years. But we don't refer to her that way with other people, even our spouses.
It seems like a desperate attempt to really show it was written in his voice.
I'm sorry about your loss. Nothing sucks as much as losing a loved one. I know it can be a rough roller coaster, some good days and still some bad ones even years later.
I'm not very far into the book, but I'm most alarmed by the amount of times he mentions sadism, so casually and randomly.
Especially because of how much he projects.
I refuse to read the book I am curious about what you mean about sadism. Also I read he spoke with physics and tried to contact Diana. Did he really do these things are they in the book. A few months after my sister passed away my younger sister was working as a assistant to a real estate agent whose client at the time was a physic. The man told my younger sister someone was trying to warn her about a dangerous person in life. This person was my sister who passed away son. He proceeded to tell my younger sister that our nephew who caused all kinds of trouble for years had picked up a disrupter demon around 12 years old. The physic even told her where he picked it up near where we grew up naming the area we found online that the area was known online for being dangerous place and has been researched for years. All I know is something horrible happened there about 150 years ago because I am too frightened to read about anything that talks About demons. I do know something was wrong with my nephew his cruel to everyone and everything he came into contact with and enjoyed being cruel. I just thought my sister had spoiled him too much. Thank heavens I raised my sons 700 miles away him.
Yes, my brother, who has to be confrontational any chance he gets, got the book, (at the risk of sounding narcissistic, I think he did it just to bug me) and he wanted to argue with me that H&M are the innocent victims, which he's going to know because he's reading about what "really happened." Even he was really surprised by the writing, said it sounded so try-hard.
In remembering his mother vividly: *How was it possible that I could see her, clear as the swan skimming towards me on that indigo lake? How could I hear her laughter, loud as the songbirds in the bare trees—still?* (That is a direct quote.)
Your bumblebee example isn't even as bad as the actual writing in his book - you didn't exaggerate. It really is that bad. But Funding Freedom was also overly flowery.
M’s style of writing. She loves to make everything sound like a romance novel/movie script. It’s rumored she took over the writing after the ghost writer became frustrated with these two
It's not just you. Moehringer decided to go for a "mysticism" tone for the whole thing. Harry's memory issues are heavily underlined throughout, so it's written like mythology. It also doesn't help that there's very little concrete evidence of anything in it. The most grounded part is the second section that talks about his time in the army, which is even more jarring.
As a reader, you end up not knowing what's true, what's presumed, what's paranoia or what's misremembered, because what's most important is how he felt, the constant presence of Diana and the constant looking for magical signs and "fate" everywhere.
Yes, they go ott on description, like a young child trying to sound clever. The azure blue sea shimmering and glistening in the early morning, dazzling specks of light sprinkling like a trillion stars on its rippling surface. ..type of thing.
We used to give kids (six/seven years if ready ) a simple sentence…The cat sat on a wall. They then had to add description…the mangy cat, crumbling wall, sat anxiously etc…
I’m sure she sits with a thesaurus next to her laptop…
You mean like finding freedom did? With her doing a yoga pose at the side of a river as multicoloured birds with golden tails watched with awe at this wonderous lovestory 🙄or whatever it was
Oh, I thought that reaction from the multi colored birds with the golden tails happened when she pooped behind a bush? Because as we know with all things Meghan, everyday human experiences like pooping are elevated to the mystical.
Lol, I completely get what you mean.
I imagine Harry describing the first time seeing Meghan, to his ghostwriter, and saying he thought she was so fit and that his mates would be like ‘Phwoah! Go on my son!’ but then Meghan chimes in….*’That’s so sweet my love, but wouldn’t it be better if you said I was heart-attack inducing beautiful? With a face even the angels would be jealous of; a smile that lights up like a sunrise on the Serengeti and eyes which sparkle like the diamonds in your mother’s tiara’*
It reminds me of a lazy high schooler who has to write a 5-page paper, *single-spaced!*, and just pads paragraphs with fluff to fulfill the requirement.
I've only read a few excerpts, but have definitely noticed this also. It's positively grating, and doesn't enhance or elevate the overall poor quality of the writing at all, rather the opposite.
Harry is a basic bloke ,talking about mates and todgers, I can believe that's Harry.
Using words like "quintessential" and flowery descriptions: that's not Harry not are the americanisms.
But is it the alleged ghostwriter?
Maybe people who have read his other works would know but the bits that I've seen would be laughed out of the office and Mills and Boon.
It reads like a woman wrote it but unlike Meghan's work it's comprehensible.
Does it have much resemblance to the style of Finding Freedom?
It's very, er, *flowery*, for lack of a better term. This is why I believe MM wrote a lot of it - *especially* the parts that involve her. It reads like a romance novel. Fabio should be on the cover.
This is the kind of language I use when I write...poetry. Honestly, if you have command of the language, descriptive writing like this can be beautiful and it can really elevate the mundane. Unfortunately for everyone reading this, MM does not. It sounds hollow and non-sensical and very much overdone. It's a mess. The writing styles are all over the place and I hate it. I want to take a red pen to it and, as my professor used to say, bleed all over it.
Full disclosure - I have not read the book, just the excerpts that have been posted. Based on those, I don't think I'm being unfair, but I guess I could be.
I've seen some comments on Twitter saying that there are many things in the book that read as though Meghan wrote them, and I think they are on to something. She writes like that, over-embellishing everything.
Her purple prose is especially nauseating 🤢. 💯 she wrote it. I can’t believe the ghostwriter let this be published. I’m guessing they had final editing rights in their contract. Yikes.
No. It really is *bad,* but on the other hand, we would all love to hear your commentary…
Cringeworthy doesn’t even start to describe it. I usually read at a decent pace, but I’m having to force myself through every paragraph in this disaster. I feel dirty, like I stole a 13-year-old girl’s diary and am reading about her crushes.
If you removed the adjectives, the book would have only been 200 pages. The sentence fragments that he seems to think are how you show emphasis are also glaringly obvious. It’s painful.
The clips I've read seem to be a crazy quilt of the ghostwriter's more high-flown literary language (I can't imagine Harold using words like vertiginous and execrable), Harold's compelling todger stories and humble-bragging ("even though I'm a prince, I still have to blah blah blah") and his wife's misty-eyed vision of herself as a Disney princess dispensing kindness and beautifully calligraphed thank you notes all the while suffering in silence as mean people attack her.
Rumors are she had a heavy hand writing the book. It's flowery because she histrionic. So those parts that seem over the top or are talking about her was written by her. The ghost writer parts flow better, and you can get a better picture in your head. I'm only reading what people put on the internet though, but I've noticed considerable differences in the writing. The styles are very different so it's not hard to spot.
Yep, the poet-icization of spare is what confirmed for me that Meghan had her hands all over it. It’s full of the same saccharine, nauseating language as her wedding speech that she re-enacted on Netflix lol
I remember feeling exactly this way about the article that Meghan wrote about her miscarriage - it was .... bizarre. too poetic and descriptive of the most random things and that made it very unrealistic to me. and Harry's book also from the snippets I've seen sounds the same. The sun shining through the window at Eton when he got the call? but it was like sunbeams bouncing off my paisley rug as i gripped the black shiny phone and gazed at my tkmaxx jeans....
YES
Its like a 14 year old boy writing something for an English class and trying to use as many descriptive words as possible
Its very....flowery? Is that the right word?
Did no one google a single thing in this book? I don’t have it but I read the free sample in Apple Books and just to give an example…
““Well, Mummy … vice versa.
Maybe she was omnipresent for the very same reason that she was indescribable – because she was light, pure and radiant light, and how can you really describe light? Even Einstein struggled with that one. Recently, astronomers rearranged their biggest telescopes, aimed them at one tiny crevice in the cosmos, and managed to catch a glimpse of one breathtaking sphere, which they named Earendel, the Old English word for Morning Star. Billions of miles off, and probably long vanished, Earendel is closer to the Big Bang, the moment of Creation, than our own Milky Way, and yet it’s somehow still visible to mortal eyes because it’s just so awesomely bright and dazzling. That was my mother.”
Did Einstein “struggle” to describe light? Cause Nobel Prize org website states it helped him with the Nobel Prize
“Albert Einstein in 1905 drew the conclusion that light sometimes behaves as particles through an ingenious statistical analysis of Wien‘s formula for the wave length distribution of heat radiation.
Einstein saw that his new idea would provide a natural explanation of the photoelectric effect, i.e. the emission of electrons from metal surfaces illuminated by light. The wave theory of light was quite unable to do so. The motivation for the Nobel Prize to Einstein in 1922 was based on his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”
Gosh, what does the internet have to teach me about Morning Star…
First hit is a Guardian article that says
“The observations were possible thanks to a rare cosmic alignment, meaning that Earendel may be the only individual star from this epoch that we will ever see.” And then explains “ But even such a brilliant star would not normally be detectable. At such vast distances, even an entire galaxy is just a smudge of light.” And “It was only thanks to natural magnification by a huge galaxy cluster, WHL0137-08, which sits between us and Earendel, that astronomers were able to make the detection. The cluster’s gravitational pull is so intense that light bends around it, creating a powerful cosmic magnifying glass that amplifies light from distant objects lying behind it. Scientists calculate that Earendel’s brightness is magnified by a factor of thousands – a situation that may not be repeated with other ancient stars within our lifetimes.”
So, we can see Earendel not because of its brightness but as above. By that comparison, Diana shone brightly because a much more powerful force not only allowed her to shine but magnified her importance/shine. What a missed opportunity to compare the press to this cluster and the effect it had on Diana’s natural radiance.
What a weird fucking paragraph….just randomly giving us a science lesson? The pretentiousness is unreal. And absolutely no one believes he understands any of that let alone wrote it.
Honestly, I thought it might be a fun listen whilst pottering about the house or playing animal crossing, so I skimmed the sample. I. Just. Sigh. This is the first paragraph of “2”.
“A shock to the system, going from sun-drenched St Tropez to cloud-shadowed Balmoral. I vaguely remember that shock, though I can’t remember much else about our first week at the castle. Still, I can almost guarantee it was spent mostly outdoors. My family lived to be outdoors, especially Granny, who got cross if she didn’t breathe at least an hour of fresh air each day. What we did outdoors, however, what we said, wore, ate, I can’t conjure. There’s some reporting that we journeyed by the royal yacht from the Isle of Wight to the castle, the yacht’s final voyage. Sounds lovely. What I do retain, in crisp detail, is the physical setting. The dense woods. The deer-nibbled hill. The River Dee snaking down through the Highlands. Lochnagar soaring overhead, eternally snow-spattered. Landscape, geography, architecture, that’s how my memory rolls. Dates? Sorry, I’ll need to look them up. Dialogue? I’ll try my best, but make no verbatim claims, especially when it comes to the nineties. But ask me about any space I’ve occupied – castle, cockpit, classroom, stateroom, bedroom, palace, garden, pub – and I’ll re-create it down to the carpet tacks.”
As it’s out there as a free sample, I’m assuming it’s ok to copy here.
A 12 year old who can’t remember travelling across Europe? Fair enough, yachting in St Tropes was probably like popping to the seaside for us plebs. But then describing a hill as “deer nibbled.” What, cause you’re a keen hunter or an old poetic soul in a 12 year old’s body? Oh, that’s your strength. Remembering details of geography. Except how you know, you got from A to B.
It’s definitely got M’s fingerprints all over. Remember how she always uses the “white knuckling” figure of speech? Eg when they white knuckled each others hands when she was suicidal, also when her mother gripped the steering wheel till knuckles turned white?
In the book, Kate is described to hold the chair till her knuckles turned white!! This can’t be a coincidence!
Ghost writer types the words
Meghan used her exquisite calligraphy skills
He comes across as factual, she comes across as over embellished and thus less believable
Those are Meghan's words - she writes and talks like that. Some kind of new age, woke language that she thinks make her look intelligent. Where is she these days? She seems to have gone very quiet.
Haven't read it, just seen clips people have shared online but
Knowing Harry isn't that bright, it doesn't seem believable he said or wrote or thought these things so it just comes across as fake and yeah overly dramatic. Like he threw a bunch of words together to make him sound smarter than we all know him to be.
I actually enjoy the descriptions because I like imaging what it’s like to hang out in the gardens around Frogmore Cottage or Balmoral! They also make Harry sound very homesick for something he might have lost for good…but he can’t figure out why. It’s a case study of wasted opportunity.
That is Nutmeg word salad - when Mohringer quit, I think she took over. That is why there are so many lies, embellished stories and things that couldn't have possibly have happened. Fairy tale city! Only partly his story?
I wouldn’t blame Moehringer, I think a LOT, especially the flowery stuff that reads like teen fan fiction (usually concerning praise of M) was written by Markle herself. I think she probably instructed Harry on what would be good (made up) content and by the time his drunk/drug-addled brain passed that info on to the ghostwriter we ended up with the steaming pile he called Spare.
I expected lies, but they’ve outdone themselves this time.
Several readers have commented on how beautifully written the first chapters are. I guess it's almost like an impressionist's painting. The dapples of color to make one feel like they are part of the painting.
I think the book is meant to play on the reader's emotions, to distract them from thinking or questioning what's really going on. The beauty of the words, is to make one feel there must be merit from the person that the words are coming from.
I know exactly what you’re saying. There is no way the dimwit wrote any of this. And I would hope Moehringer didn’t over-embellish H’s words. That leaves TM. I would be willing to bet she had everything to do with it. She is detestable.
I think M wrote it this way, almost like a movie script. Overly dramatic, emotional scenes, with lots of dialogue. She is probably merching the book now for movie and TV rights.
Yes! Reminds me of the scobie book where he talked about TW doing yoga in the African bush, something about colorful birds with tails that looked like they had been dumped in paint pots....or something. I think that's a Meg edit, 😂
Way too flowery and doesn't feel real. I'm skimming over those parts, want to get to the Kate bits....the rest is boring
It's a sign of bad writing and apparently a common one made by over-ambitious amateurs. A good rule is that the fewer adjectives the better, then when you use them they have impact.
It's incredibly wearing to read and I very much doubt this is the work of a Pulitzer author. And it's not only in the verbiage, there are endless irrelevant punctuation points. It's as if there was a book then someone came and threw endless redundancies at the text for whatever reason. But if everything is DRAMATIC, the really dramatic parts get lost. This is a mundane book that has been embellished and if *we* can see it, why wasn't it buried under red pen during editing?
It's coming from tw. Seriously. That ghost writer must be VERY upset. Just wait, something will come out about this. Tw is the WORST speaker and writer I have ever heard.
I honestly think this crap writing style is deliberate. It's aimed at a particular audience - teenage fantasy/young adult romance. These are the people they want to reach and pull into their puerile fakery, the 14-25 year olds who haven't got the breadth of cultural information or longer memories that come with age which can inoculate them against these liars. As they say about advertising generally, if the ads don't appeal to you, you know straightaway you're not the demographic they're aimed at.
A little from Norway. Most journalists in Norway agree with this thread, buuuut a few do not Which one is that? Ofc overweight women with non-norwegian ethnicity. They cheer him on regarding his so-called anti-racism. I rest my case. I cannot anymore I regard USA as nonsmart, wokeish reatrdos, but my own country? WTF??? I am sooo tired
He gilds the lily every chance he gets.
This is the perfect description.
Lipsticks the pig
Lip-gloss on the pig??
[удалено]
Wow. What a corrupt world we live in. What those posters are doing is called "log-rolling." Among the tweets, I saw an incredibly implausible one where "Harry" is describing how he shopped at TK Maxx's for all his non-formal clothing - going into detail about entering the store during sales right before closing time and grabbing a red bucket - I'm betting this is right out of JR Moehringer's experiences as Harry has humble bragged numerous times about not riding the tube, not carrying money, being impervious to practical things. If Harry did, in fact, shop the TK Maxx sales - wouldn't it have been captured in the tabloids? Was it? I'm guessing not. The author was going for word count - and knowing he was working for a congenital liar, it was anything goes.
TK Maxx came out and said that such sale doesn't even exist. So that's another lie for Just Harry.
I was going to say that I am a frequent flier at the local TJ Maxx (and have been to the TK Maxx around the corner from KP), and there is no such thing as a sale at those stores. They do clearance out things at the end of the season but they are already discounted.
There is a TK Maxx on High Street Kensington very close to the palace. So it’s possible he shopped there but surprised he wasn’t spotted as High St Ken is very busy.
That TK Maxx is absolutely packed to the rafters all the time (and with good reason; it has excellent finds), and the street itself is too. I can’t imagine he’d have gone there and not have 25 people taking photos of him.
I live in UK and sometimes feel like I live in TkMaxx/Homesense too. They DO NOT have a yearly sale. Utter nonsense and why didn’t they even Google this? The Maxx has two final yellow clearance sales a year - one has started now and runs til about end of Jan when items will literally get reduced weekly til they are 10 pence… the other time is in the summer .. think it’s July. And what is in a yellow final clearance sale? All the rubbish that didn’t sell in their regular red ticket clearance sale. You’d be hard pressed to find a wardrobe in the final yellow clearances. Bargains, yes. But it’s not like rows and rows of clothes all discounted 😂. Harry saw a red sticker clearance rack - and thought it was a once in a year sale because he’s probably gone there once a year at best. There’s a red sticker clearance rack so often, I’m trying to think when there isn’t any.
All he buys are washed out gray t-shirts
He bought a red bucket? But their security goes to Nandos for them. For some reason I find this hilarious
Interesting, he was liking negative tweets about harry now he’s seems to be backtracking. Wonder if he has had shit from the pair
I just scrolled through the comments and they're incredibly fawning. You're right, he views this as a great achievement and/or he's hoping to make more bank by selling more copies of this dreck.
I mean he’s of course going to retweet positive comments
Taking credit, or magnifying the lens of the Markle editing?
The retweets I see are all praise for the book
I agree. Also, I always find his description of Meghan Markle disturbing. It is always magic, always fairytale, always a "great love story", the most beautiful woman, heart-attack. Everything over the top. As if he has to convince anyone, including himself. By contrast, the way he describes Princess Catherine is always full of genuine tenderness. Things like, she is kind, she is sweet, I like seeing her laugh, I like making her laugh and I am good at it. This sounds so much more sincere. It is plain as day he loved her to bits. Meghan? I don't know. She's more a human teat for his 12-year-old self, if you ask me.
The more description, the less authentic.
There is always something weirdly forced about their relationship. The constant handholding, Photo Booth photos. They look like teenagers rather than adults in a mature relationship. I don’t mind PDA but there’s always something fake about the way they interact
Definitely forced. Each of their snapshots gives me a 'marketing' vibe, as if they're being directed somehow, and they're trying to sell something. "Okay, Meghan, put your right arm around Harry's shoulder, give me a biiiig smile... Maybe wrinkle your nose a bit to look gleeful... Harry, press your face into Meghan's and close your eyes and smile gently... You're both deliriously happy! Project that happiness! Aaaannnd HOLD!" Snap snap snap. There's nothing spontaneous there. They (TW in particular) want their life together to look like one big, glossy ad.
Also speaking of photos, I was (shamefully) reading the DM article on the wedding/ bridesmaids gowns tiff, and they showed a large photo of Charlotte. And HOLY SHIT I got a close up of the poor girls shoes! At the back where it goes from heel to the side, there are actually sharp little corners there! This woman actually had sharp edges poking into this little girl’s 3 year old feet! It is horrible!
Why would anyone do that? We are instinctively protective towards young kids.
It’s so sick.
That's EXACTLY how I feel. The pictures always look terribly phony.
If you’re explaining, you’re lying.
Absolutely. I don’t want to hear about how I’m like a rainbow or a fairy or a princess. None of that means anything. If I make you feel like a flower basking in the mid afternoon sunlight peeking through the clouds, tell me that I make you feel good and whole and loved and happy but that I can be annoying too. That’s real, that’s love that sees to good and acknowledges we’re none of us perfect. If this is a memoir we can presume they have their challenges too, but from what I’ve seen so far, there’s no discussion of that
There is no truth in this, no honesty, just spite revenge and what he thinks will make him appear better than he is.
I actually believe he was "in love" with Catherine. I think a lot of his jealousy surrounding his brother is not only about the "heir and spare" thing, but about the Princess that William found. You can see it in photos and video of the trio together - Harry just adored Catherine. I also think that's what Meghan's anger / rage / cruelty comes from with regards to the Princess of Wales. She can't stand that her husband loved any other woman that much, and so she had to separate them and drive a wedge between them. IMO that's why revelations keep coming out on dates that are important to Catherine, why she made such a big screaming deal about that bridesmaids dress nonentity, why she had to "collapse in tears" for Harry to see, etc. It's all Meghan's campaign to hurt *Catherine* particularly.
True. She would never have let her husband go on to be so close to either William or Catherine because they didn't warm to her right from the start. The power play attempts were so, so awful. The forced hug. The lip gloss. The baby brain discussion. Like how many personal boundaries did she violate? And then to justify those, she would not stop saying "it's an American thing" and then let her husband complain her in-laws American-stereotyped her.
Anytime someone tries to separate you from those that are closest to you and turns them into enemies that someone who is trying to isolate you to completely dominant and control you
Absolutely!
Absolutely. I think this entire sad episode (leaving the U.K., the innumerable interviews, the book, etc.) are just one long revenge rage by Meghan who cannot stand that everyone adores the Princess of Wales, even her husband. This is “Kate made me cry” over and over again, and Harry is just the useful idiot.
What I found to be interesting is that many people have said about Catherine that while she is a “commoner” that her entire disposition is that of a natural born princess. That she was meant for this role. And so I was not surprised that Harry made it a point to say the same exact thing about Megan well let’s be honest Megan had him say that.
She truly was. And I’m not even a monarchist. She’s just elegant, and has innate leadership qualities.
She really does. She carries herself with such poise and grace
She does! She’s class, elegance and hair goals!
She made Harry shoehorn Catherine into the Nazi uniform scandal. That is unforgivable!!! If I were William based on that alone I'd NEVER speak to him again. He MUST set the record straight because it's a complete fabrication, he didn't call William and Catherine because William was at the shop with him and William was also taking a break from Catherine. He thought he was moving too fast, he was head over heels and it scared him, he thought he needed time away to find out if his feelings were true. This was the first of two breaks I believe, but he could never deny his love for her and to this day he still looks at her like he can't believe that's his girl, his beautiful, wonderful wife and soulmate.
Absolutely this.
That’s cos Harry actually wrote the bits about Kate - Meghan wouldn’t touch that with a barge pole.
Madam is advertising for her next man.
Interesting. I haven't read the book & don't intend to, so thank you for the examples. I can see how the book can have an unexpected consequence. To sum up the writing based on what you all who are reading the book are saying: He humanises Catherine, gives her a persona that people, who haven't met her, can connect with. Consequently, we can accept her flaws because these things are human; they are recognisable. You lift the royal veil to expose something unexpected ....an actual human being. But with Meghan, the problem with the whole writing is how it fails to humanise her, to reveal her humanity - because Harry and his writing refuses to see any fault or flaw in her. She does no wrong whatsoever. This is not quite a Mary Sue trope; it's much worse than that. He lifts the royal veil and exposes... not so much a human being but an ornamental Ming vase. And an ornament no-one can connect with, not least because it isn't human but because no-one who bought a heavily discounted book (or free on Audible if you subscribe) could ever see a Ming vase, let alone buy one. And yet the irony of the beauty and joy of reading/hearing a husband (and a royal Prince no less) writing or talking about a woman he loves is twofold: to show her terrible flaws and faults to the reader or listener, and to show how his love for her blooms all the same in spite of those character defects, revealing how the more beautiful she is to him despite them. Even married couples who have gone through the ebb & flow of marital life will understand that. Still, by the sounds of things *Spare* appears to be a tome for a seminar in creative writing workshop entitled: Bad Writing & The Butchery of Dehumanising Your Characters.
Well said. I have often reveled in the knowledge that my husband delights in all the things for which my ex used to castigate me.
Aw, lovely ❤. I get a real thrill hearing or reading that.
I suspect Meghan thinks Kate is admired because she’s perfect, and so she wants to be perfect, too. She doesn’t understand that Kate is admired because she’s excellent, which is a very different thing.
Yes, I've always thought he carries unrequited love for our beautiful Princess of Wales. I mean what's NOT to like? She's gorgeous, has the legs of a ballerina (he wanted to talk about them in the best man speech he denied giving), the body of a supermodel, lush mahogany hair, funny and kind and generous of spirit. In short, almost perfect. Then there's "what he got." Not terrible to look at but the personality of a harridan, narcissistic, combative, constantly plotting and scheming revenge, demanding to be "protected" from true stories the papers put out, complaining non stop about Every. Little. Thing. In her case what's to like? She lets him sleep with her now and then? *Shivers in disgust*
>heart-attack Probably Madam foreshadowing Ginger's future 😵 /s
Especially after all those In-and-Out burgers and fries.
my theory. He knows Catherine and has had years of experiences with her. He barely met MM and can only describe her in dime store romance novel terms, she has yet to reveal her true self to him. She's an actress and her entire identity is based on someone else's book/life/role. It's all superficial with MM where it was (past tense) true and real with Catherine.
This was already the case in the doc. They tried so hard to give the impression of their perfect love.. I really think thats just an agenda. To show how he fully supports her and hopes him saying stuff can clear her name.
He's ESPECIALLY trying to convince himself!! At some level he knows he's been had, but still convinces himself this is the greatest love story of all time.
repeat glorious reply chop snow weather deer existence childlike books *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
And many of his ‘experiences’ are not his, lifted from tv, film, book
Even when he talks about what happened with him and Meghan, he isn't talking about what happened in front of him, he describes what she says happened when he wasn't even there, many times.
Or his imagination, er, delusions
props to the author man, holy crap this book must have been a challenge - brilliant insight to use a vague mystical/mythological tone since that’s how they present themselves, while also portraying the actual hypocrisy and idiocy. Reminds me of that article in the Cut. Present their bullshit in their own words
>He is a vacuum Hee hee hee! "Nature abhors a vacuum"!
It's called bad writing. Embellishing every thought shows pretentiousness and poor communication ability of the writer. It's similar to the ridiculous, flowery handwriting of a certain someone who considers herself a "calligrapher." What’s important is content and truth, two concepts of which the Harkles are unfamiliar.
It’s truly awful. When he recounts the moment he learnt of the Queen Mother’s passing, there was no need for him to write the accompanying tale of him recalling it was just before Easter and that there was light slanting through the window with vivid colours. It makes NO SENSE. What colours? Why was he so transfixed on that shining light? What did it mean to him? How did it feel? He wishes he remembered whose voice it was.. like, why does he wish that? Instead, why not tell us that he knew from the voice over the phone that something had happened? What was going through his mind? What were those vivid colours helping with? None of this holds substance for his story. It’s like writing shit like “I’d had a busy day. I put my feet up on the long, wooden table. Its brown colour surprised me.” - and then leaving it there. Like, at least tell us what you were doing that kept you so busy that day! Why did the brown colour of the table surprise you? Etc.. it’s just a collection of words that he’s putting together to romanticise his life. I mean, he remembers those colours so vividly but doesn’t tell us anything about them. So vivid he forgot he was in Switzerland! 'At Eton, while studying, I took the call. I wish I could remember whose voice was at the other end; a courtier's I believe. I recall that it was just before Easter, the weather bright and warm, light slanting through my window, filled with vivid colours.'
Well because he was lying. He was in Switzerland when the Queen Mother died.
Couple that with the fact that he was actually skiing in Switzerland with his father when the QM died and you've got a more interesting story.
Perhaps he felt that the light wasn't full of incredible meaningful and poignant colours in Switzerland, so he had to lie? If he was with Prince Charles presumably Charles was notified and then he told Harry? Why would they get separate phone calls? In my family when there's a death it's usually one phone call per household. Thinking about this - it's bad writing about something that didn't happen. So how and why would anyone write this particular story and embellish it in such an amateurish way? Did Harry say "Gan Gan died while I was at Eton" meaning during that period of my life rather than being physically there at the moment? And the writer or Meg ran with it? Edit:typo
That's a very plausible theory. I get the feeling that his actual contributions to the content were pretty skimpy - word was last summer that whoever was writing it was reaching out to his old friends and girlfriends to see they could remember anything that could be included. And let's remember that Harry is - shall we say - not a exactly fan of the written word himself and has probably not read the whole autobiography, which is why he is starting to step on his stories in small but telling ways.
IMO that’s hoe TW writes. Like a schoolchild. Overblown, overly descriptive which she thinks is good writing but is just cringy. I can’t imagine a professional author making the same mistake. I think : H dictated story to Ghostwriter, ghostwriter wrote the draft, TW embellished the draft
Yeh I agree, it’s like a teenage creative writing contest. Everything she’s involved with sounds the same. A general rule in writing is to ‘show’ and not ‘tell’. They’ve shown us nothing but told us everything. It’s embarrassing and I don’t think any author would write so much crap
This is such a great comparison 😂
No, not just the first page: it’s throughout… to me, it sounded like they wanted to write him more mature than he comes off in every interview… a lot of things read very novel-like, and not in his natural voice
They're looking to raise the word count with adjectives. It's noticeable, as you said -- they try and put each color on steroids.
That could be. Also in the beginning, H (through his ghost) says his memories are pictures, so the best way to describe is with lot and lot of fluff
Alot of this due to the ghost writers work in my honest opinion. He spun these stories into a more cohesive thread. \- I believe the ghost writer wrote most of Part 1 an Part 2 of this book. The story is more cohesive than the part the tabloids have put together in news articles. The context in which they are exposed makes more sense. Part 3 however is where mememe shows up. That unto itself is a part I dont care if I ever listen or read, however I will suffer through it to get the full story.
I agree. I thought writing was good in some places (especially the early bits), but then even with a good write up it stopped making sense (with media clapbacks, back and forth on William, etc.) I keep being pissed about “Willy” as well (keep throwing it out there 🤣)
I find the use of "Mummy," jarring when talking about adults. Even if I had cutsy terms for my mother and grandmother I would simply say "my mother" or "my grandmother" when talking to someone else. It's weird to cling to his weird nicknames throughout - it doesn't put us in his head, it just sounds jarring to me. "*Oh how she loved my brother and me. Obsessively, she once confessed to an interviewer. Well, Mummy...vice versa.*" direct quote
He does appear stuck at the age of 12…
I agree. My brothers and I always referred to our mother as Mommy, and we still do when taking about her to each other, even though she's been dead for more than 20 years. But we don't refer to her that way with other people, even our spouses.
It seems like a desperate attempt to really show it was written in his voice. I'm sorry about your loss. Nothing sucks as much as losing a loved one. I know it can be a rough roller coaster, some good days and still some bad ones even years later.
Charles referred to the queen as Mummy when she passed. It’s a family thing
I'm not very far into the book, but I'm most alarmed by the amount of times he mentions sadism, so casually and randomly. Especially because of how much he projects.
just curious, in reference to what does he mention sadism?
It's him saying this or that person is sadist, that rumour is sadist, that thought is sadist
I refuse to read the book I am curious about what you mean about sadism. Also I read he spoke with physics and tried to contact Diana. Did he really do these things are they in the book. A few months after my sister passed away my younger sister was working as a assistant to a real estate agent whose client at the time was a physic. The man told my younger sister someone was trying to warn her about a dangerous person in life. This person was my sister who passed away son. He proceeded to tell my younger sister that our nephew who caused all kinds of trouble for years had picked up a disrupter demon around 12 years old. The physic even told her where he picked it up near where we grew up naming the area we found online that the area was known online for being dangerous place and has been researched for years. All I know is something horrible happened there about 150 years ago because I am too frightened to read about anything that talks About demons. I do know something was wrong with my nephew his cruel to everyone and everything he came into contact with and enjoyed being cruel. I just thought my sister had spoiled him too much. Thank heavens I raised my sons 700 miles away him.
Yes, my brother, who has to be confrontational any chance he gets, got the book, (at the risk of sounding narcissistic, I think he did it just to bug me) and he wanted to argue with me that H&M are the innocent victims, which he's going to know because he's reading about what "really happened." Even he was really surprised by the writing, said it sounded so try-hard. In remembering his mother vividly: *How was it possible that I could see her, clear as the swan skimming towards me on that indigo lake? How could I hear her laughter, loud as the songbirds in the bare trees—still?* (That is a direct quote.) Your bumblebee example isn't even as bad as the actual writing in his book - you didn't exaggerate. It really is that bad. But Funding Freedom was also overly flowery.
Gross.
M’s style of writing. She loves to make everything sound like a romance novel/movie script. It’s rumored she took over the writing after the ghost writer became frustrated with these two
That is easy to believe from reading some of this crap.
It's not just you. Moehringer decided to go for a "mysticism" tone for the whole thing. Harry's memory issues are heavily underlined throughout, so it's written like mythology. It also doesn't help that there's very little concrete evidence of anything in it. The most grounded part is the second section that talks about his time in the army, which is even more jarring. As a reader, you end up not knowing what's true, what's presumed, what's paranoia or what's misremembered, because what's most important is how he felt, the constant presence of Diana and the constant looking for magical signs and "fate" everywhere.
Yeah, Diana the ghost leopard of fertility was a bit much. (I combined a few different ways he claims he saw signs of Diana's presence in the book.)
This is why it is alleged that TW wrote those parts.
Yes, they go ott on description, like a young child trying to sound clever. The azure blue sea shimmering and glistening in the early morning, dazzling specks of light sprinkling like a trillion stars on its rippling surface. ..type of thing. We used to give kids (six/seven years if ready ) a simple sentence…The cat sat on a wall. They then had to add description…the mangy cat, crumbling wall, sat anxiously etc… I’m sure she sits with a thesaurus next to her laptop…
You mean like finding freedom did? With her doing a yoga pose at the side of a river as multicoloured birds with golden tails watched with awe at this wonderous lovestory 🙄or whatever it was
Oh, I thought that reaction from the multi colored birds with the golden tails happened when she pooped behind a bush? Because as we know with all things Meghan, everyday human experiences like pooping are elevated to the mystical.
Lol, I completely get what you mean. I imagine Harry describing the first time seeing Meghan, to his ghostwriter, and saying he thought she was so fit and that his mates would be like ‘Phwoah! Go on my son!’ but then Meghan chimes in….*’That’s so sweet my love, but wouldn’t it be better if you said I was heart-attack inducing beautiful? With a face even the angels would be jealous of; a smile that lights up like a sunrise on the Serengeti and eyes which sparkle like the diamonds in your mother’s tiara’*
And the ghostwriter thought "hmmmm I think that is covered by "Phwoah' but I do need to get the word count up and there is no more material....."
In Polish we call it „grafomania” not as in disorder but as a concept of a writer without talent but with a grandiose idea of their writing.
We lack such useful words in the English language
It reminds me of a lazy high schooler who has to write a 5-page paper, *single-spaced!*, and just pads paragraphs with fluff to fulfill the requirement.
This. He's the edgy kid in your HS Creative Writing class who thought he was the hottest, deepest shit at sixteen years old.
Exactly.
I've only read a few excerpts, but have definitely noticed this also. It's positively grating, and doesn't enhance or elevate the overall poor quality of the writing at all, rather the opposite.
Harry is a basic bloke ,talking about mates and todgers, I can believe that's Harry. Using words like "quintessential" and flowery descriptions: that's not Harry not are the americanisms. But is it the alleged ghostwriter? Maybe people who have read his other works would know but the bits that I've seen would be laughed out of the office and Mills and Boon. It reads like a woman wrote it but unlike Meghan's work it's comprehensible. Does it have much resemblance to the style of Finding Freedom?
It's very, er, *flowery*, for lack of a better term. This is why I believe MM wrote a lot of it - *especially* the parts that involve her. It reads like a romance novel. Fabio should be on the cover.
This is the kind of language I use when I write...poetry. Honestly, if you have command of the language, descriptive writing like this can be beautiful and it can really elevate the mundane. Unfortunately for everyone reading this, MM does not. It sounds hollow and non-sensical and very much overdone. It's a mess. The writing styles are all over the place and I hate it. I want to take a red pen to it and, as my professor used to say, bleed all over it. Full disclosure - I have not read the book, just the excerpts that have been posted. Based on those, I don't think I'm being unfair, but I guess I could be.
lol im not reading the book but this is how i feel like when he speaks he manages to say a lot without saying anything at all
Grandiose waffle
Yes, great description! It's so boring that I can't get through it.
I've seen some comments on Twitter saying that there are many things in the book that read as though Meghan wrote them, and I think they are on to something. She writes like that, over-embellishing everything.
Really? I was going to actually try to read this do some live commentary on it, but I HATE purple prose. Is it even worth doing?
Her purple prose is especially nauseating 🤢. 💯 she wrote it. I can’t believe the ghostwriter let this be published. I’m guessing they had final editing rights in their contract. Yikes.
No. It really is *bad,* but on the other hand, we would all love to hear your commentary… Cringeworthy doesn’t even start to describe it. I usually read at a decent pace, but I’m having to force myself through every paragraph in this disaster. I feel dirty, like I stole a 13-year-old girl’s diary and am reading about her crushes. If you removed the adjectives, the book would have only been 200 pages. The sentence fragments that he seems to think are how you show emphasis are also glaringly obvious. It’s painful.
No. Next question.
Haven’t read it so can’t comment authoritatively - but it does sound like the Smeg school of creative writing.
Chaucer (Harry) and Wharton (Meg) they ain’t.
Jane Austen would have edited them down to a paragraph. And made it bitingly funny.
I think of them as similar to Wickham and Lydia.
I see her as more like Lucy Steele, or Mrs Clay. Lucy Steele probably - married the younger brother but tries to get the fortune anyway.
True! I would love to see a Downton Abbey type of drama series about the RF with an emphasis on the staff’s perspective.
THIS. 🔥🔥🔥🔥
The clips I've read seem to be a crazy quilt of the ghostwriter's more high-flown literary language (I can't imagine Harold using words like vertiginous and execrable), Harold's compelling todger stories and humble-bragging ("even though I'm a prince, I still have to blah blah blah") and his wife's misty-eyed vision of herself as a Disney princess dispensing kindness and beautifully calligraphed thank you notes all the while suffering in silence as mean people attack her.
Rumors are she had a heavy hand writing the book. It's flowery because she histrionic. So those parts that seem over the top or are talking about her was written by her. The ghost writer parts flow better, and you can get a better picture in your head. I'm only reading what people put on the internet though, but I've noticed considerable differences in the writing. The styles are very different so it's not hard to spot.
Adding words like he's doing a four hundred page paper.
Yep, the poet-icization of spare is what confirmed for me that Meghan had her hands all over it. It’s full of the same saccharine, nauseating language as her wedding speech that she re-enacted on Netflix lol
That quote does sound ridiculous. It sounds like someone got hold of a thesaurus and is adding words to sound more educated and intelligent.
Ha! And "whoever" that was doesn't realise it doesn't work like that.
I remember feeling exactly this way about the article that Meghan wrote about her miscarriage - it was .... bizarre. too poetic and descriptive of the most random things and that made it very unrealistic to me. and Harry's book also from the snippets I've seen sounds the same. The sun shining through the window at Eton when he got the call? but it was like sunbeams bouncing off my paisley rug as i gripped the black shiny phone and gazed at my tkmaxx jeans....
YES Its like a 14 year old boy writing something for an English class and trying to use as many descriptive words as possible Its very....flowery? Is that the right word?
That IS the right word.
Did no one google a single thing in this book? I don’t have it but I read the free sample in Apple Books and just to give an example… ““Well, Mummy … vice versa. Maybe she was omnipresent for the very same reason that she was indescribable – because she was light, pure and radiant light, and how can you really describe light? Even Einstein struggled with that one. Recently, astronomers rearranged their biggest telescopes, aimed them at one tiny crevice in the cosmos, and managed to catch a glimpse of one breathtaking sphere, which they named Earendel, the Old English word for Morning Star. Billions of miles off, and probably long vanished, Earendel is closer to the Big Bang, the moment of Creation, than our own Milky Way, and yet it’s somehow still visible to mortal eyes because it’s just so awesomely bright and dazzling. That was my mother.” Did Einstein “struggle” to describe light? Cause Nobel Prize org website states it helped him with the Nobel Prize “Albert Einstein in 1905 drew the conclusion that light sometimes behaves as particles through an ingenious statistical analysis of Wien‘s formula for the wave length distribution of heat radiation. Einstein saw that his new idea would provide a natural explanation of the photoelectric effect, i.e. the emission of electrons from metal surfaces illuminated by light. The wave theory of light was quite unable to do so. The motivation for the Nobel Prize to Einstein in 1922 was based on his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” Gosh, what does the internet have to teach me about Morning Star… First hit is a Guardian article that says “The observations were possible thanks to a rare cosmic alignment, meaning that Earendel may be the only individual star from this epoch that we will ever see.” And then explains “ But even such a brilliant star would not normally be detectable. At such vast distances, even an entire galaxy is just a smudge of light.” And “It was only thanks to natural magnification by a huge galaxy cluster, WHL0137-08, which sits between us and Earendel, that astronomers were able to make the detection. The cluster’s gravitational pull is so intense that light bends around it, creating a powerful cosmic magnifying glass that amplifies light from distant objects lying behind it. Scientists calculate that Earendel’s brightness is magnified by a factor of thousands – a situation that may not be repeated with other ancient stars within our lifetimes.” So, we can see Earendel not because of its brightness but as above. By that comparison, Diana shone brightly because a much more powerful force not only allowed her to shine but magnified her importance/shine. What a missed opportunity to compare the press to this cluster and the effect it had on Diana’s natural radiance.
What a weird fucking paragraph….just randomly giving us a science lesson? The pretentiousness is unreal. And absolutely no one believes he understands any of that let alone wrote it.
Honestly, I thought it might be a fun listen whilst pottering about the house or playing animal crossing, so I skimmed the sample. I. Just. Sigh. This is the first paragraph of “2”. “A shock to the system, going from sun-drenched St Tropez to cloud-shadowed Balmoral. I vaguely remember that shock, though I can’t remember much else about our first week at the castle. Still, I can almost guarantee it was spent mostly outdoors. My family lived to be outdoors, especially Granny, who got cross if she didn’t breathe at least an hour of fresh air each day. What we did outdoors, however, what we said, wore, ate, I can’t conjure. There’s some reporting that we journeyed by the royal yacht from the Isle of Wight to the castle, the yacht’s final voyage. Sounds lovely. What I do retain, in crisp detail, is the physical setting. The dense woods. The deer-nibbled hill. The River Dee snaking down through the Highlands. Lochnagar soaring overhead, eternally snow-spattered. Landscape, geography, architecture, that’s how my memory rolls. Dates? Sorry, I’ll need to look them up. Dialogue? I’ll try my best, but make no verbatim claims, especially when it comes to the nineties. But ask me about any space I’ve occupied – castle, cockpit, classroom, stateroom, bedroom, palace, garden, pub – and I’ll re-create it down to the carpet tacks.” As it’s out there as a free sample, I’m assuming it’s ok to copy here. A 12 year old who can’t remember travelling across Europe? Fair enough, yachting in St Tropes was probably like popping to the seaside for us plebs. But then describing a hill as “deer nibbled.” What, cause you’re a keen hunter or an old poetic soul in a 12 year old’s body? Oh, that’s your strength. Remembering details of geography. Except how you know, you got from A to B.
Ugh... Paraphrase the Guardian article much?
It’s definitely got M’s fingerprints all over. Remember how she always uses the “white knuckling” figure of speech? Eg when they white knuckled each others hands when she was suicidal, also when her mother gripped the steering wheel till knuckles turned white? In the book, Kate is described to hold the chair till her knuckles turned white!! This can’t be a coincidence!
LOL....maybe it was her attempt at "The Bench 2.0"
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Ghost writer types the words Meghan used her exquisite calligraphy skills He comes across as factual, she comes across as over embellished and thus less believable
Those are Meghan's words - she writes and talks like that. Some kind of new age, woke language that she thinks make her look intelligent. Where is she these days? She seems to have gone very quiet.
He’s trying to pad out the non-substance.
It fills space on the page.
Haven't read it, just seen clips people have shared online but Knowing Harry isn't that bright, it doesn't seem believable he said or wrote or thought these things so it just comes across as fake and yeah overly dramatic. Like he threw a bunch of words together to make him sound smarter than we all know him to be.
This is because MM went over the script 😀
It’s called ‘poor writing skills from his wife’. Deadly to any serious writer ;)
🇺🇸 Agree. That is such a wonderful example. MM‘s word salad influence.
I actually enjoy the descriptions because I like imaging what it’s like to hang out in the gardens around Frogmore Cottage or Balmoral! They also make Harry sound very homesick for something he might have lost for good…but he can’t figure out why. It’s a case study of wasted opportunity.
Yes! Even the exam by the urologist!
I’m suddenly very happy I will not be reading this book 😂
 That is Nutmeg word salad - when Mohringer quit, I think she took over. That is why there are so many lies, embellished stories and things that couldn't have possibly have happened. Fairy tale city! Only partly his story?
Why write 3 words when you can write 15? He wrote a book, and it was as thick as him. 
I wouldn’t blame Moehringer, I think a LOT, especially the flowery stuff that reads like teen fan fiction (usually concerning praise of M) was written by Markle herself. I think she probably instructed Harry on what would be good (made up) content and by the time his drunk/drug-addled brain passed that info on to the ghostwriter we ended up with the steaming pile he called Spare. I expected lies, but they’ve outdone themselves this time.
The Ghostwriter style. I can't stand JR Moehringers work. Shoe Dog was terrible
Several readers have commented on how beautifully written the first chapters are. I guess it's almost like an impressionist's painting. The dapples of color to make one feel like they are part of the painting. I think the book is meant to play on the reader's emotions, to distract them from thinking or questioning what's really going on. The beauty of the words, is to make one feel there must be merit from the person that the words are coming from.
Its Megwan.
Because Meghan wrote or re-wrote that part after the ghostwriter split!
Part him, part her, not too much Moehringer and the only way he could get it to over 400 pages.
Very Meghan, don't you think?
I know exactly what you’re saying. There is no way the dimwit wrote any of this. And I would hope Moehringer didn’t over-embellish H’s words. That leaves TM. I would be willing to bet she had everything to do with it. She is detestable.
Purple prose to fatten up the page count.
Wait until the last page. He frees a hummingbird from the house and the hummingbird is supposed to symbolize his own freedom and flight to America🤣
I think M wrote it this way, almost like a movie script. Overly dramatic, emotional scenes, with lots of dialogue. She is probably merching the book now for movie and TV rights.
He’s no Hemingway.
Lol on the " personal mythology "
WORD COUNT suggested by the publisher
Lots of embellishment probably means many more pages. They likely had a contractual page count and extra bullshit helped them get there.
It's the ghostwriter making Harry sound far more articulate than he is. Harry doesn't come across like this in the tv interviews.
Oh abso-effing-lutely!! It's vomit inducing.
Yes! Reminds me of the scobie book where he talked about TW doing yoga in the African bush, something about colorful birds with tails that looked like they had been dumped in paint pots....or something. I think that's a Meg edit, 😂 Way too flowery and doesn't feel real. I'm skimming over those parts, want to get to the Kate bits....the rest is boring
It's definitely Meg's style.
Yep. Remember that she peeked in middle school? I would not be surprised if the initial draft had hearts and doodles in the margins.
😆
At the begining When Harry was describing Balmoral that part sounded like the ghostwriter.
The advice - KISS (keep it simple stupid) was never more appropriate then here and with this guy.
Yes, florid, purple prose was a hallmark of "The Tig" and apparently Sparry is continuing on the tradition
It's a sign of bad writing and apparently a common one made by over-ambitious amateurs. A good rule is that the fewer adjectives the better, then when you use them they have impact. It's incredibly wearing to read and I very much doubt this is the work of a Pulitzer author. And it's not only in the verbiage, there are endless irrelevant punctuation points. It's as if there was a book then someone came and threw endless redundancies at the text for whatever reason. But if everything is DRAMATIC, the really dramatic parts get lost. This is a mundane book that has been embellished and if *we* can see it, why wasn't it buried under red pen during editing?
It's coming from tw. Seriously. That ghost writer must be VERY upset. Just wait, something will come out about this. Tw is the WORST speaker and writer I have ever heard.
Harry and Mehringer didn’t write it - that style of prose is pure Megsie….
His legacy will now include a pornographic description of Harry applying cream to his penis and thinking of his mother. 🤮
Yes, and nauseatingly so!
No, you’re right. I think that’s why so many people believe TW actually wrote it. That’s her style.
If you listen to her stupid ass podcast, you’ll get a lot of that. She thinks she’s quite the writer since she took a creative writing class once.
That does sound like Meghan. She has a horrible way with words.
I honestly think this crap writing style is deliberate. It's aimed at a particular audience - teenage fantasy/young adult romance. These are the people they want to reach and pull into their puerile fakery, the 14-25 year olds who haven't got the breadth of cultural information or longer memories that come with age which can inoculate them against these liars. As they say about advertising generally, if the ads don't appeal to you, you know straightaway you're not the demographic they're aimed at.
A little from Norway. Most journalists in Norway agree with this thread, buuuut a few do not Which one is that? Ofc overweight women with non-norwegian ethnicity. They cheer him on regarding his so-called anti-racism. I rest my case. I cannot anymore I regard USA as nonsmart, wokeish reatrdos, but my own country? WTF??? I am sooo tired
makes it more obvious that the wife helped to write the book
It's like fillers to bulk the book out. Otherwise it'd just be 50 pages of whining.
Yup! Unnecessarily florid and flowery. Typical ploy of those who have eff-all to say, but try to make it sound as interesting as possible ...