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Prince Harry: The Inside Story
Prince Henry of Wales has emerged as the unexpected jewel in the crown of the modern British monarchy. Despite his unruly antics, for which he’s made headlines all over the world, Harry’s popularity rivals that of the Queen herself. Heartthrob and loveable rogue, he has won the public’s heart.
Duncan Larcombe’s insightful and highly entertaining biography of the rebellious royal recalls Harry’s Eton days, his military career and his tempestuous love life. Despite a string of exploits (not forgetting the notorious Nazi fancy dress incident), Harry has a mysterious gift. With a twinkle in his eye and natural charm in abundance, he can seemingly withstand even the most scandalous of media storms.
Since his military career has ended, all eyes are on Harry wondering what life, career and love have in store for the maverick prince. This is the inside story of how the cheeky teenager has grown and matured into a respected soldier, charitable fundraiser and national figurehead who still retains his reputation as the most entertaining resident of Buckingham Palace.
Duncan Larcombe’s insightful and highly entertaining biography of the rebellious royal recalls Harry’s Eton days, his military career and his tempestuous love life. Despite a string of exploits (not forgetting the notorious Nazi fancy dress incident), Harry has a mysterious gift. With a twinkle in his eye and natural charm in abundance, he can seemingly withstand even the most scandalous of media storms.
Since his military career has ended, all eyes are on Harry wondering what life, career and love have in store for the maverick prince. This is the inside story of how the cheeky teenager has grown and matured into a respected soldier, charitable fundraiser and national figurehead who still retains his reputation as the most entertaining resident of Buckingham Palace.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 15, 2017
52 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 23, 2025
Prince Harry has always been a person that I have admired, even back in the time when I grew up in Macedonia. Whenever I'd see something about him on the news, I'd get all excited and I wouldn't take my eyes off him.
I like how Duncan brings us to Prince Harry's life. It feels like we are there, with him, on his adventures. I like how the story progresses and I learn more things about Harry that I haven't known before. Like for example the fact that his name is not even Harry haha :D It's Henry. Amazing, right?
Easy to read, and a story that would attract everyone that wants to know the inside of a royal world and for anyone that even wondered what it's like...
I like how Duncan brings us to Prince Harry's life. It feels like we are there, with him, on his adventures. I like how the story progresses and I learn more things about Harry that I haven't known before. Like for example the fact that his name is not even Harry haha :D It's Henry. Amazing, right?
Easy to read, and a story that would attract everyone that wants to know the inside of a royal world and for anyone that even wondered what it's like...
April 15, 2018
Reading about Harry is always fun. He is the only royal that shows his flaws, can play the fool and interact with everyone. The author is able to genuinely illuminate that fun side of Harry’s. I think though there was to much about the media and the author’s experience as a journalist in the book. I found each chapter to be very repetitive. It would begin with the media’s version of Harry or the author’s opinion of him. Then we would go into the story the chapter is based on. Then we would end up with a conclusion that merits the media and explains how it is not as invasive and damaging to the royals as everyone thinks. It was honestly a struggle to finish, due to the fact that it was written like a gossip column and the repetitive format. I have to add though, that the chapters on Harry’s time in the Army were very interesting. All in all, an entertaining read but a forgettable one too.
January 13, 2023
This in-depth biography of Prince Harry starts out cringey and only gets worse. "Most women would like to mother him, or more." Uh, what?
Author Duncan Larcombe, a long-time journalist for The Sun, claims early on that "the Royal Job" of covering members of the British monarchy never appealed before it was offered to him as a young reporter. Only a few pages later, he describes his trip to South Africa to get scoop on Chelsy Davy as "one of the best assignments" he's ever been on, even as he complains about the booked-at-the-last-minute economy air travel.
There are contradictory statements abound in this painfully overwritten and terribly edited tome. The statement "Royals only go nice places" comes immediately after a lengthy description detailing the horrifying living conditions in Lesotho, a country very close to Harry's heart and the origin of his HIV-focused charity Sentebale. Larcombe also shares an obvious but exceedingly sympathetic attitude for the press. Even when he's "playing nice" and performatively giving his subject some space, he still comes off as incredibly invasive of the prince's privacy.
There are numerous questionable structural choices, like recounting Harry's harrowing escape from his first tour in Afghanistan a hundred or so pages before we learn about his day-to-day life on the front line — or is it "in" the front line? This book can't make up it's mind between the two terms. We are also subjected to Chelsy Davy being described as "athletic and tan" three times in a span of five pages during her intro, but we don't get to know much more about who she is as a person until after she and Harry have broken up about ten chapters later.
The repetition is particularly grating. Consider this doozy of a paragraph: "In return for getting access to troops on the front line, journalists were happy to allow sensitive parts of their dispatches to be cut for security reasons. It was a customary feature of war reporting that in return for access to troops on the front line, journalists would accept that there would be a certain things they could not report."
I'd also be happy if I never see certain oft-repeated turns of phrase again, among them: "taking it to the chin," "knuckle down," "the small hours," "the accident of birth," "playing the fool," "yomp," and most irritatingly, "letting his hair down," which appeared no fewer than eight times in the chapter on Harry's antics in Las Vegas alone. Someone get this poor journo a thesaurus.
On top of all that, there are plenty of other discrepancies, like Chelsy Davy's mother's name being spelled two different ways, and another acquaintance's nickname being misspelled. The author chooses to use nicknames every chance he gets, putting on airs that he is overfamiliar with his subject's entire social circle, when in fact the evidence dictates that he has only met Harry in passing a handful of times.
By the end, I didn't feel like I'd learned a whole lot about Harry's life that I, or any casual royal watcher, didn't already know. This was, for the most part, a lengthy and tedious bit of tabloid fodder.
Author Duncan Larcombe, a long-time journalist for The Sun, claims early on that "the Royal Job" of covering members of the British monarchy never appealed before it was offered to him as a young reporter. Only a few pages later, he describes his trip to South Africa to get scoop on Chelsy Davy as "one of the best assignments" he's ever been on, even as he complains about the booked-at-the-last-minute economy air travel.
There are contradictory statements abound in this painfully overwritten and terribly edited tome. The statement "Royals only go nice places" comes immediately after a lengthy description detailing the horrifying living conditions in Lesotho, a country very close to Harry's heart and the origin of his HIV-focused charity Sentebale. Larcombe also shares an obvious but exceedingly sympathetic attitude for the press. Even when he's "playing nice" and performatively giving his subject some space, he still comes off as incredibly invasive of the prince's privacy.
There are numerous questionable structural choices, like recounting Harry's harrowing escape from his first tour in Afghanistan a hundred or so pages before we learn about his day-to-day life on the front line — or is it "in" the front line? This book can't make up it's mind between the two terms. We are also subjected to Chelsy Davy being described as "athletic and tan" three times in a span of five pages during her intro, but we don't get to know much more about who she is as a person until after she and Harry have broken up about ten chapters later.
The repetition is particularly grating. Consider this doozy of a paragraph: "In return for getting access to troops on the front line, journalists were happy to allow sensitive parts of their dispatches to be cut for security reasons. It was a customary feature of war reporting that in return for access to troops on the front line, journalists would accept that there would be a certain things they could not report."
I'd also be happy if I never see certain oft-repeated turns of phrase again, among them: "taking it to the chin," "knuckle down," "the small hours," "the accident of birth," "playing the fool," "yomp," and most irritatingly, "letting his hair down," which appeared no fewer than eight times in the chapter on Harry's antics in Las Vegas alone. Someone get this poor journo a thesaurus.
On top of all that, there are plenty of other discrepancies, like Chelsy Davy's mother's name being spelled two different ways, and another acquaintance's nickname being misspelled. The author chooses to use nicknames every chance he gets, putting on airs that he is overfamiliar with his subject's entire social circle, when in fact the evidence dictates that he has only met Harry in passing a handful of times.
By the end, I didn't feel like I'd learned a whole lot about Harry's life that I, or any casual royal watcher, didn't already know. This was, for the most part, a lengthy and tedious bit of tabloid fodder.
February 18, 2023
This book highlighted his younger years (20's) and despite being a normal kid, the media just had to be annoying. They learned nothing from his mother's death, did they? I feel bad for him. He deserves some privacy. I'm still angry about the paparazzi and how they drove his mom nuts. He is entitled to a life of his own, a peaceful one. As for his match with Meghan, I feel they were destined to be together. He's a shining star in his mother's eyes and I like him. I don't care what he's done, he's a normal person and a human being. I'd like to read other books on him that detail his life now. I'm pretty sure his mom (who is my age now) would have been extremely proud of both her boys. She had a huge hand in raising these 2 fine young men. So what if they are the opposites.
August 19, 2018
Three stars for some interesting, lesser-known stories about Harry. Plus one for being written by a Brit journalist who's covered the Royals for years, so he has some fun insider tales. Minus one for being poorly written/edited -- and this guy writes for a living?? Minus another one for confusing chronology, jumping around in time and sometimes returning to different parts of the same story a hundred pages later. Final verdict: two stars.
April 22, 2018
A very good look at the life of Prince Harry and goes deeper than you would otherwise find in other sources. Royal watchers and fans of Prince Harry will really enjoy reading this book. It's very hard to put down.
May 7, 2018
Interesting in parts and quite enjoyable. One of my favourite Royals, as he seems so much more down to earth than others. If you enjoy reading about the Royal Family, then it is worth giving this book a try.
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers.
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers.
June 8, 2018
A very well written biography of Prince Harry that I highly enjoyed. It would have been a 5 star for how interesting it was, but a couple of times we'd move past a time then suddenly go back so I took away half a star. Highly recommended!
June 5, 2018
Ok this book should have been called “The Journalist and The Royals” cause I was hoping to listen to a book about Prince Harry. Instead I got an audiobook about a journalist career around the Royals. Sometimes he was talking about himself the went to talking how he met Harry, throw in some info about him AND Prince William (which annoys me cause I only cared for Harry), then talks more about his career. I did like the insight of how it all works of how the press get what they need for the papers and also how The Royals worked with them after the death of Diana.
March 6, 2018
Starting in 2005, this story of Prince Harry begins with the time he was pictured wearing a Nazi outfit that caused outrage worldwide.
Told from the view of reporter Duncan Larcombe of the Sun, we learn that after the death of Princess Diana, the Palace and the Press agreed that while they were being educated, William and Harry were off limits to the Press. However, Harry’s decision to take a gap year after leaving Eton and before undertaking his military training, made him fair game for the Press.
We follow Harry through his military training and the determination with which he undertook all of it. He wanted very much to serve in Afghanistan but worry not only for him but for the other troops as well, made that a difficult thing to achieve.
The author shares the times that Harry got himself in hot water from his silly antics. He loves having fun and enjoys teasing and poking fun at people but not in a mean way. As the author tells us, he also has a gift of being able to put people at ease. Since he has such a great sense of humor, people love him even more and are happy for forgive him if he makes a gaffe.
He has a passion for some of the charities that his mother loved and continues them to this day. His love life is also discussed and the girlfriends that he has had up to today and his love for Meghan Markle.
I thoroughly enjoyed this fact-filled book and know others will as well. Biographies of the royal family are always interesting to me, especially when they are about a favorite royal such as Harry.
Copy provided by Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Told from the view of reporter Duncan Larcombe of the Sun, we learn that after the death of Princess Diana, the Palace and the Press agreed that while they were being educated, William and Harry were off limits to the Press. However, Harry’s decision to take a gap year after leaving Eton and before undertaking his military training, made him fair game for the Press.
We follow Harry through his military training and the determination with which he undertook all of it. He wanted very much to serve in Afghanistan but worry not only for him but for the other troops as well, made that a difficult thing to achieve.
The author shares the times that Harry got himself in hot water from his silly antics. He loves having fun and enjoys teasing and poking fun at people but not in a mean way. As the author tells us, he also has a gift of being able to put people at ease. Since he has such a great sense of humor, people love him even more and are happy for forgive him if he makes a gaffe.
He has a passion for some of the charities that his mother loved and continues them to this day. His love life is also discussed and the girlfriends that he has had up to today and his love for Meghan Markle.
I thoroughly enjoyed this fact-filled book and know others will as well. Biographies of the royal family are always interesting to me, especially when they are about a favorite royal such as Harry.
Copy provided by Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and honest review.
June 5, 2018
Duncan Larcombe's experience as a seasoned journalist has undoubtedly helped him to shape this biography into an entertaining read. So often with biographies, especially of members of the royal family, the author has had no interaction with the subject and ends up repeating things that are already readily available to the public through the media.
Larcombe has meet Prince Harry on numerous occassions and is able to offer insights into aspects the public does not see but he is not close friends with the Prince so is unable to provide insight into what he is like as a private person.
Larcombe also spends a lot of time speculating on Prince Harry's feelings on certain situations without actually having discussed them with him and also spends a lot of time defending the media and their right to report on the Prince and his actions. There are moments where he comments on how considerate he and his colleagues are of the Prince's space but then in the next sentence tells a story of how they have intruded upon a private moment in order to get their story.
While this was an entertaining and interesting read which brought insight into how the media and the palace interact, it was by no means a groundbreaking insight into Prince Harry's personal life and private thoughts by someone who was close to him.
Larcombe has meet Prince Harry on numerous occassions and is able to offer insights into aspects the public does not see but he is not close friends with the Prince so is unable to provide insight into what he is like as a private person.
Larcombe also spends a lot of time speculating on Prince Harry's feelings on certain situations without actually having discussed them with him and also spends a lot of time defending the media and their right to report on the Prince and his actions. There are moments where he comments on how considerate he and his colleagues are of the Prince's space but then in the next sentence tells a story of how they have intruded upon a private moment in order to get their story.
While this was an entertaining and interesting read which brought insight into how the media and the palace interact, it was by no means a groundbreaking insight into Prince Harry's personal life and private thoughts by someone who was close to him.
July 9, 2018
Have you ever had a chance encounter with a celebrity? You know where maybe a celeb said 'hi' or waved to you? If so, you too can write a book just like Duncan.
That is exactly what this book is. It is someone who has the job of reporting on the Royals. While working he had a handful of small encounters with Harry and therefore feels he can write an entire book on it. The problem is there are so few encounters that you have to repeat facts/stories over and over again.
I had several major problems with this book. Duncan spends a great deal of time trying to convince the readers that because he is a reporter for a 'reputible' newspaper that he is above the leeching freelance reporters/photographers that stalk the Royals. The line is very, very thin here. Duncan has gone on islands to capture the Royals' private honeymoons, vacations, and get THE photo. But somehow that makes him above it all because he is 'better'.
Another issue was that a good 50% of this book was 'what if'. Duncan did a lot of speculating about what happened, conversations that occurred and things that Harry felt. He used his chance encounters to draw these conclusions. It was a bit creepy.
That is exactly what this book is. It is someone who has the job of reporting on the Royals. While working he had a handful of small encounters with Harry and therefore feels he can write an entire book on it. The problem is there are so few encounters that you have to repeat facts/stories over and over again.
I had several major problems with this book. Duncan spends a great deal of time trying to convince the readers that because he is a reporter for a 'reputible' newspaper that he is above the leeching freelance reporters/photographers that stalk the Royals. The line is very, very thin here. Duncan has gone on islands to capture the Royals' private honeymoons, vacations, and get THE photo. But somehow that makes him above it all because he is 'better'.
Another issue was that a good 50% of this book was 'what if'. Duncan did a lot of speculating about what happened, conversations that occurred and things that Harry felt. He used his chance encounters to draw these conclusions. It was a bit creepy.
March 29, 2019
The biography of Prince Harry, my favourite British royal, was eye-opening as it provided some insider scoop from the author, who is a reporter with the Sun. It was a coming-of-age account from a rebellious youth to a decorated member of the royal family today, soon to be a father.
September 29, 2017
Very interesting perspective...that of a journalist covering him.
October 29, 2017
A very good read and very much enjoyed it. Was given it to read on the plane heading to the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto
May 26, 2018
Great read
I enjoyed reading this book - I'm a big fan of prince Harry. I did find some portions of the book jus a bit repetitive.
I enjoyed reading this book - I'm a big fan of prince Harry. I did find some portions of the book jus a bit repetitive.
March 11, 2019
Un prince à découvrir.
July 15, 2019
Just the point of view of a journalist following him around! Not the greatest read
June 9, 2020
First half was better.
July 9, 2018
Well written. I liked it!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews