If you read Spare by Prince Harry and need more about this generation of the royal family or if you’re on the hold list and you’re looking for something to tide you over until it arrives, here’s a few read-a-likes we hope you’ll love.
Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand
When news of the budding romance between a beloved English prince and an American actress broke, it captured the world’s attention and sparked an international media frenzy. But while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have continued to make headlines – from their engagement, wedding, and birth of their son Archie to their unprecedented decision to step back from their royal lives – few know the true story of Harry and Meghan.
For the very first time, Finding Freedom goes beyond the headlines to reveal unknown details of Harry and Meghan’s life together, dispelling the many rumors and misconceptions that plague the couple on both sides of the pond. As members of the select group of reporters that cover the British Royal Family and their engagements, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand have witnessed the young couple’s lives as few outsiders can.
The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor—the Truth and the Turmoil by Tina Brown
“Never again” became Queen Elizabeth II’s mantra shortly after Princess Diana’s tragic death. More specifically, there could never be “another Diana”—a member of the family whose global popularity upstaged, outshone, and posed an existential threat to the British monarchy.
Brown takes readers on a tour de force journey through the scandals, love affairs, power plays, and betrayals that have buffeted the monarchy over the last twenty-five years. We see the Queen’s stoic resolve after the passing of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother, and Prince Philip, her partner for seven decades, and how she triumphs in her Jubilee years even as family troubles rage around her. Brown explores Prince Charles’s determination to make Camilla Parker Bowles his wife, the tension between William and Harry on “different paths,” the ascendance of Kate Middleton, the downfall of Prince Andrew, and Harry and Meghan’s stunning decision to step back as senior royals. Despite the fragile monarchy’s best efforts, “never again” seems fast approaching.
Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan by Christopher Andersen
Andersen examines how the Queen’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering to mold her grandsons in the Windsor image after Diana’s death, and her expectations of William as the future king, played out. He questions whether the brothers’ famously close relationship can survive Harry’s departure from the Royal Family—the first time this has happened since their great-great-uncle King Edward abdicated the throne to marry a divorcée. He delves into the impact sisters-in-law Kate and Meghan have had on each other as well as on their princes, and how marriage and fatherhood have changed the brothers and, in some ways, also driven a wedge between them. Andersen also looks with an honest eye at how the princes and their wives have been continuously buffeted by scandal—including headline-making allegations of bullying, racism, betrayal, and emotional abuse that has pushed more than one royal to the brink of self-destruction.
