Eighteen months after Prince Harry’s book Spare and there’s still no sign of the paperback. Why not?

By Ephraim Hardcastle for the Daily Mail

01:28 17 Jul 2024, updated 10:36 17 Jul 2024

Eighteen months after publication of Prince Harry‘s Spare and still no sign of the paperback version. 

Publishers are usually swift to get one on the market, especially if they can market it as containing ‘sensational’ new material. 

But it seems Harry has no new spare excitement to impart. His family has kept him at arms length, aware that anything they say could be taken down and used in evidence against them. 

The only exclusives Harry could offer relate to his view of the Coronation from behind Aunt Anne’s plumed hat and how he nipped in to Buck House en route to Heathrow to use the loo. Too much information, Harry?

While Meghan didn’t dispatch Lucozade and grapes to her father-in-law when he was diagnosed with cancer, she did privately wish the King well.

Will she dispatch birthday greetings to her father Thomas when he reaches his 80th tomorrow?

Summertime sadness for MPs

The new leader of the Commons, Lucy Powell, has extended the Commons term by 12 days to give the impression the Government means business. 

Alas, all Labour has done is upset parliamentary dinner ladies and doorkeepers who had been told the summer’s recess would start this week but have now been instructed to remain at work until July 30. 

Some have had to cancel booked holidays. ‘Luckless Lucy’ is suddenly the least popular person with the workers of Westminster.

Linford’s other reason for notoriety 

After winning 100m Gold at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Linford Christie became haunted by the burden of his manhood dubbed ‘Linford’s Lunchbox’. 

‘The day after I won the Olympics they talked about how big my d*** was,’ he tells a forthcoming BBC documentary. 

‘I thought it was derogatory and racist. Because of that story women thought it was OK to grab my d***.’ 

Admitting it still rankles, he adds: ‘The lunchbox thing followed me around for years. I had to carry a lot of burden that I was more famous for my genitalia than I was for my athletic achievements.’

Lisa should steer away from labels 

Noting Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy complaining on the airwaves about ‘toxicity’ in politics in the wake of the Trump assassination attempt, broadcaster Andrew Neil asks: ‘Does that include Foreign Secretary David Lammy calling Trump pro-Ku Klux Klan and pro-Nazi a few years back?’

Time for Jill to get frank 

Jonathan Aitken urges Joe Biden’s wife Jill to follow his own late wife Elizabeth’s advice in dealing with her previous ageing husbands. 

‘Elizabeth was brave in giving what she called ‘frank notes’ to her husbands Rex Harrison and Richard Harris when she watched them perform,’ he says. 

‘They were not always pleased when her notes criticised them for forgetting their lines. 

‘Would that Jill Biden might now imitate Elizabeth’s candour.’