Prince Harry’s ghostwriter defends Spare’s ‘inaccuracies’ |
Though opinions are divided, Prince Harry’s Spare has proven to be a resounding success. It’s the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time, a victory for its publishers, who reportedly gave Harry a $20 million advance. Much of the negative reaction to the book is the personal details shared without the consent of others involved in the story, but there are also repeated moments that have been described as factual inaccuracies. However, the ghostwriter dismissed criticism of it as simply “blurred” memories.
Harry’s ghostwriter for Spare was JR Moehringer, an acclaimed author who has written best-selling books for Andre Agassi and Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog.
He has achieved another success with Spare, which is now the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time. However, some have accused the book of several factual inconsistencies or inaccuracies.
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What moments are challenged?
Memories that have been called “inaccurate” or questioned include:
- Where Harry was when the Queen Mother died – Harry claimed he was at Eton College when news of his great-grandmother’s death broke, but news reports show he was on a skiing holiday in Switzerland with King Charles and Prince William
- Harry’s Xbox from Diana – Harry remembers that his mother gave him an Xbox for his 13th birthday (1997), but the console wasn’t released until 2001
- who his ancestors were – Harry writes that Henry VI was his “great-great-great-great-great-grandfather”, but that monarch had only one son, Edward of Westminster, who died without heirs during the Battle of Tewkesbury.
While many would agree that these inaccuracies are minor and not overly consequential, his ghostwriter still defended them.
On his social media, JR Moehringer posted three quotes from Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir that position memory and autobiography as the subject of blurred memories and emotional distortions.
One of the passages posted from the book said: “The line between memory and fact is blurred, between interpretation and fact. There are unintentional errors of this nature from the Wazoo.”
Another said, “Neurologist Jonathan Mink, MD, explained to me that when memories are as intense as David’s, we often just record the emotion, blurring all the details into an unreadable smear.”
Moehringer also defended the book, citing Spare himself.
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“Whatever the reason, my memory is my memory, it does what it does, collects and curates as it sees fit, and there is as much truth in what I remember and how I remember it as there is in so-called objective facts. Things like chronology and cause and effect are often just fairy tales we tell ourselves about the past.”
“Landscape, geography, architecture, that’s how my memory rolls over. Data? Sorry, I’ll have to look that up. dialogues?
