Prince Harry faced a backlash over his memoir "Spare", with criticism from the media, commentators, army veterans and even the Taliban, while Buckingham Palace kept silent on its widely leaked contents.
Days before the official publication on Tuesday, disclosures from the book dominated headlines and airwaves after a Spanish-language version of the memoir mistakenly went on sale in Spain. 这本回忆录的西班牙语版本在西班牙误售后，书中披露的信息占据了各大报纸的头条和广播。
Revelations, including an alleged physical attack on him by heir to the throne Prince William, how he lost his virginity, took drugs and killed 25 people in Afghanistan, have prompted both condemnation and derision.
Writer A.N. Wilson called the ghostwritten tome -- the biggest royal book since Harry´s mother Princess Diana collaborated with Andrew Morton for a 1992 biography -- "calculated and despicable" and a work of "malice".
Describing his decision to go public "idiotic", Wilson said the book had merely succeeded in making the public sympathise with the royal family, "not with him".
- ´Idiotic´ -
The book is the latest broadside from Harry and his American wife Meghan after they quit royal duties and moved to California in 2020.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as they are formally known, have since cashed in on 乘机利用；靠……赚钱 their royal connections with several lucrative 获利丰厚的 contracts for tell-all books and programmes.
The Spanish-language version of the book was hurriedly withdrawn from shelves after the blunder on Thursday but not before it had been purchased by media outlets, wrecking the publisher´s strict worldwide embargo.
The Sun tabloid said public sympathy for Harry over losing his mother as a child could not "justify the destructive, vengeful path he has chosen, throwing his own family under a bus for millions of dollars". 《太阳报》称，公众对哈里王子幼年丧母的同情并不能“证明他选择破坏性、复仇的道路是正当的，他为了数百万美元而牺牲了自己的家庭”。
In an editorial, it pointed to "countless discrepancies" in his claims and advised him to listen to friends who have urged him to "stop for his own good". 在一篇社论中，该报指出他的说法中存在“无数的不符之处”，并建议他听取朋友们的意见，这些朋友敦促他“为了自己好而停止”。
The Guardian´s Gaby Hinsliff said the book had moved beyond issues of "awkward public interest" into the "washing of dirty linen" in public. 这本书已经超越了“尴尬的公共利益”问题，成为了公众“家丑外扬”的话题。
The US edition of the left-leaning newspaper was the first to publish a leaked extract of the book this week, in which Harry described his physical altercation with William.
"The details of the brothers´ alleged punch-up in a palace cottage are at once almost ridiculously trivial and heartbreakingly sad," she wrote.
- ´Trashed´ -
Harry´s claim to have killed 25 people in Afghanistan and likening his actions to removing "chess pieces" from a board, has been seen as boastful and inappropriate, and enraged some veterans.
Retired colonel Tim Collins, who led a British battalion in Iraq in 2003, condemned a "tragic money-making scam", adding: "That´s not how you behave in the army. It´s not how we think.
"Harry has now turned against the other family, the military, that once embraced him, having trashed his birth family," he added.
Another high-ranking veteran who served in Afghanistan, colonel Richard Kemp, said his comments would "feed militant propaganda".
Senior Taliban official Anas Haqqani tweeted: "Mr Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces 棋子, they were humans; They had families who were waiting for their return."
- Jealousy claims -
The Sun quoted sources close to his father, King Charles III, as saying he had been saddened by the book.
But there was no official palace comment.
In fresh claims in the memoir reported by the Daily Telegraph late Friday, Harry alleges that his father wanted to avoid supporting him and Meghan financially because he was jealous of her.
The duke writes he realised Charles feared "a novel and resplendent" royal who would "dominate" the limelight after the now-king raised concerns about the monarchy supporting the couple monetarily after their 2018 wedding.
"He had experienced that before and he had no interest in letting it happen to him again," Harry writes, referring to Diana, the Telegraph said.
Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert at Bangor University in north Wales, said the "scale" and "ferocity" of the current royal rift was unprecedented but the royal family would probably "ride this out". 目前王室裂痕的“规模”和“凶猛”是前所未有的，但王室可能会“安然度过难关”。
But any moves to remove Harry and Meghan´s royal titles would require political intervention and new legislation.
The royals would likely regard that as "pouring fuel onto the fire 火上浇油" at a time when they wanted to focus on Charles´s looming coronation on May 6, he said.
Larry Finlay, managing director of Transworld Penguin Random House, said: "We always knew this book would fly but it is exceeding even our most bullish expectations我们一直都知道这本书会火，但它甚至超出了我们最乐观的预期。
"As far as we know, the only books to have sold more in their first day are those starring the other Harry (Potter)."
“据我们所知，唯一在第一天销量更高的书是由另一个哈利·波特主演的书。”
A handful of people waited outside the doors of WH Smith in London's Victoria station to be one of the first to buy a copy of the book - which has made headlines across the world with bombshell revelations about the Royal Family and was leaked and sold early by some booksellers in Spain.
KEY REVELATIONS IN PRINCE HARRY'S BOOK 哈里王子书中的关键爆料
1. The duke admits to using cocaine - saying "it wasn't very fun"
2. He claims to have killed 25 people in Afghanistan during his two tours of duty
3. He says he asked his father not to marry Camilla - and his brother made the same request
4. He describes how King Charles told him Meghan should not go to Balmoral after the Queen's death
5. He recalled the moment he found out his mother, Princess Diana, had been in a car accident
6. He says he lost his virginity to an older woman in a field behind a busy pub
7. He accuses Prince William of knocking him over during an argument about the Duchess of Sussex
In his first print interview since his autobiography, with US magazine People, the duke maintained that he "would like nothing more" than for his children to have relationships with the Royal Family.
He said that Archie, three, and 19-month-old Lilibet did have a connection with some of the Windsors, whom he did not name, saying this brought him "great joy".
Crowds of photographers, camera operators and reporters captured the moment that the first customers were handed copies of the memoir.
Sarah Nakana, 46, was first to the till to buy her copy at just gone midnight, describing Prince Harry's decision to write the book and tell his story as "incredibly courageous and brave".
She said: "I'm excited to hear from Prince Harry about his life in his words.
"He has created a historical record of his life. He lived it. Only he knows what he endured and went through.
"I know for sure the UK media sensationalised some of the bits that make him look in the worst light and sell them the most papers."
Other early customers included Professor Chris Imafidon, who purchased three copies, and two 20-year-old friends Ben Vu and Leigh Harper.
Despite having a retail price of £28, many shops, including Waterstones and WH Smith are selling it at half price.
It is also available for £14 on Amazon.
Prince Harry’s highly anticipated memoir provides intimate details about his very public and often contentious life as part of—and apart from—the British royal family. But what is the significance of his choice of the book’s one-word title, Spare?
哈里王子备受期待的回忆录提供了他作为英国王室的一部分(或之外)非常公开且经常有争议的生活的私密细节。但是，他选择这本书的一个词的标题“Spare”有什么意义呢?
The answer to that question lies in the phrase the heir and the spare 继承人和备胎 .
Top Cover Image Credit: Random House Group
What does the heir and the spare mean?
The phrase the heir and the spare (and its variations, such as the spare to the heir and an heir and a spare), is an informal way of referring to the two children of a monarch who are first and second in line for succession.
是一种非正式的说法，指君主的两个孩子，他们分别是王位继承的第一和第二顺位继承人。
The first in line for succession to the throne is, of course, the heir. In the expression, the word spare, then, is a bit of an irreverent joke: if something happens to the heir (they die), there is another one to take their place—a “spare.”
Historically, the phrase has almost always referred to the two eldest sons, as most monarchies have practiced male-preference or male-only primogeniture succession, in which the closest living male relative to the monarch is next in line for the throne.
According to Prince Harry, his father, now King Charles III, used the phrase in reference to him and his brother William when speaking to Princess Diana after Harry’s birth. (William is the heir to the throne.) In his memoir, Prince Harry makes it clear that he felt that he was treated as the “spare” by the media and some members of his family.
