Prince Harry’s book Spare has broken all records by selling 1.4 million copies on the first day of its publication. The publishers have printed 2.5 million copies and are fairly confident they’ll shift the lot. Penguin/Random House are said to have paid Harry $20 million for the book. There are even some reports that suggests he could make over $30 million on the book.
I put these figures before you so you’ll know what motivated Harry to write ….No, sorry, in fact Harry didn’t write a word of the book. It was a novelist and journalist called J R Moehringer who ghost-wrote the book. I expect Harry would have written the book himself and cut out the middle-man, only reports suggest he’s still struggling with doing joined-up handwriting.
But back to the motivation – why Harry got J R to write the book. Part of it, I have no doubt, was spite. Inserting an in-law into a powerful family is always tricky, and the Royals have long memories, going back to Mrs Simpson the American woman who stole King Edward away. Then there’s the fact that the Royals are very obviously a dysfunctional family – ask Prince Andy or King Charles if you don’t believe me. Plus when there’s a lot of money sloshing around, as is always the case with the Royals all of the time, not just now, you may be sure that serious notes of bitterness will rend the Royal air from time to time.
But one major motivation stands out a mile – money. If you’ve the prospect of making around $20 million, or maybe even $30+ million, you’ll probably be prepared to do anything short of pushing your granny under a bus. In Harry’s case, of course, this option has, sad to say, been pre-empted.
OK, chorus as one: IT’S THE MONEY, STUPID.
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