In a long succession of royal biographies, no other has received as much attention as Prince Harry’s upcoming tell-all memoir, ‘Spare’. After excerpts of the highly anticipated book were leaked via media sources earlier this week, the biography has topped two of Amazon’s best-selling lists and is on record for becoming one of the most bought royal memoirs in British history due to its salacious and revealing nature. As public discourse surrounding its content dominates media headlines, Rutger Bruining, CEO and founder of the UK’s leading biography-writing service, StoryTerrace, comments on the vulnerabilities associated with the process of sharing one’s truth, with a detailed focus on how holding a significant space in the public’s eye can alter how personal and sensitive information is received.
In an intensely intimate attempt to offload and address the many rumours shared about his life, the Duke of Sussex opted for the medium of a memoir as a way to make peace with his past and attempt to set the record straight to the public. Bringing to the fore the intricacies and the confessional nature of memoir-writing, biography expert, Rutger Bruining says there is value in being vulnerable through sharing your story, especially when one is of a high-brow background where maintaining control over your own narrative becomes challenging.
The practice of writing one’s memoir is rarely linear, but instead a continual process with a series of emotional hurdles along the way. Bruining has seen how thousands of people have benefited from embarking upon this journey, but comments on the added challenges that come with being in the public eye. He says:
“Whatever the motive, people mostly write their life stories to make sense of their lives or simply narrate their family history. Everybody has a memoir in them but how does one define a clear-cut beginning, middle and end when the plot is based on your own life? It is an admirable and brave thing for anyone in the public eye to open up to the sordid details of the past and their relationships.
“In any event, Prince Harry’s memoir will have revelatory stories and details that will result in debate. Whether the book brings him closer to his family or alienates him will depend on whether it increases his popularity with the British public, and whether that is at the expense of the Royal Family as a whole.
“Memoirs are everlasting. I can say first-hand how much weight a memoir holds in terms of immortalising a life story. The physicality of it is one thing, being able to flick through the pages of one’s life story makes it more personal in a way. TV programmes and films often have creative input from large teams, whereas the process of memoir writing is more intimate. This means that subjects often don’t feel well-represented, such as in the Crown. In a book, they carefully considered and signed off on every word which future generations and in Harry’s case historians will then be able to read in that light.”
