Harry takes no prisoners in tell-all book but it won’t topple the monarchy

Spare exposes the careful stagecraft that sustains the royal family, but as history has shown, nothing sticks to the Windsors

Prince Harry and Prince William on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in 2018 to watch an RAF flypast. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Meadhbh McGrath

Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, opens with a clandestine meeting with his “Pa” Charles and brother “Willy” following the funeral of his grandfather, Prince Philip. As he awaits their arrival at Frogmore gardens in Windsor, he considers a supposed Gothic ruin looming behind him, “which in reality was no more Gothic than the Millennium Wheel”.

“Some clever architect, some bit of stagecraft. Like so much around here,” he muses. Zing!