It’s often said that England and America are two countries divided by a common language.
If you’re one of the many readers on this side of the pond to pick up a copy of “Spare,” you are likely engrossed by Prince Harry’s poignant yet frequently salacious account of life inside the royal bubble. As you read with fascination about the grief he struggled with after his mother, Princess Diana, died in 1997, or the racist media coverage of his wife, Meghan Markle, you may also find yourself wondering about more mundane things.
Like: What on earth is a biro?
To help American readers navigate the Duke of Sussex’s tell-all — which is dense with British cultural references even as its gushing, confessional quality defies the national belief in maintaining a “stiff upper lip” — we’ve compiled some of the more peculiarly British people, places and things and attempted to explain them in a manner accessible to Yanks (and other commoners).
- Balmoral
The royal family’s estate in Scotland and the site of some of the most dramatic moments in “Spare.” It is where Queen Elizabeth II died last year (shortly before Harry arrived — he wasn’t invited on the family plane). It’s also where Harry and his brother, Prince William, learned their mother, Princess Diana, had been killed in a car accident in 1997. Harry describes the castle in vivid detail, including the brownish tap water — “filtered and sweetened by the Scottish peat” — and the identical doors, which made it all too easy to barge in accidentally on his father doing headstands in his boxers.