Spare by Prince Harry

2023, Random House

My brother says Prince Harry is annoying and entitled, but I've always found him kind of cute. I once purchased a mask of his freckled face, and wore it on a visit to my son at his UK university, hoping to get a laugh. I didn't. "Is that guy in the royal family?" was all he had to say.

Undaunted, I added a Meghan mask to my collection and went out for tea in London with a friend. The other customers pretended not to notice us, but we could see they were secretly excited to be taking tea with royalty. Harry's dainty pinky-finger pose is perfect for drinking tea.

Harry posing gracefully near a rug

You'll understand I couldn't resist reading Harry's autobiography to learn more about the man behind the mask.

Spare, named for Harry's role in life as the spare heir to the throne in the case of the death of his older brother (and now his older brother's children) is a pretty good read. Although I did a bit of skimming and skipping over the part about his army life, I liked hearing what he had to say about his youth, Meghan, their relationship with his family, and the decisions he made to stand up for himself and his wife. An extra perk was learning what it's like to always have a body guard with you, and for your every move to appear in the newspapers.

I also liked the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan. I thought they addressed some serious topics such as racism, activism, fighting against the status quo and trying to improve the world, plus how the royal family really works. The content was more profound than I had expected. (Even more profound than our tea out in London!)