Jennie Bond: So what does Harry want? A job share? A role in an institution he has only shown contempt for?

Back in the summer it seems Prince Harry began getting cold feet about his book.

It must have been close to finished by then, but reports from the publishers working on Spare suggest that, after coming back to the UK for the Platinum Jubilee, Harry wanted to pull it. He should have listened to his conscience.

The tale of sibling rivalry, petty jealousies and highly personal revelations which would be best left in a teenage diary, is unedifying. It is also damaging: to Harry’s own reputation, to his brother, his family and to the British armed forces.

The competition between William and Harry goes back to their earliest years. Harry’s book is shot through with recriminations against his older brother. Even at Balmoral, he felt he was given a smaller bedroom than William.

And that rankled. How either of these highly privileged young Princes could feel hard done-by in the exclusive environment of their grandmother’s sprawling castle is hard to comprehend for anyone not born into such privilege.

Sibling rivalry, though, is as old as families. As luck would have it, Harry was born second. And that meant that his brother was going to be King (even though it was a destiny that William found hard to bear when he was younger). So what is it that Harry wants? A job share? Or does he feel that he should be the one heading an institution for which he has shown such contempt?

He walked away from his role as a senior member of the royal family. He thinks his father and brother are trapped in an ivory tower. And he has found love, wealth, freedom and happiness in California. So what’s his grouse?

Tonight we will hear a great deal more from him in two – or three or is it now four? – lengthy TV interviews to publicise his book The only positive note to come out of this sorry tale of woe is that, for the first time, we have heard Harry say that he wants his father and his brother back.

Not the institution, which he clearly still despises, but the family. That’s encouraging, even though he has accused Charles and William of rebuffing his attempts at reconciliation. Harry, it would seem, wants an apology from them (for exactly what is unclear) before peace talks can be opened.

Opinion polls suggest the public are getting tired of hearing the litany of grievances from the Sussexes. But this “raw and unflinching” account (for once, the publicity blurb seems understated) of Harry’s troubled life is undeniably a newsworthy and extremely rare even, perhaps only comparable to his mother’s now notorious interview on Panorama nearly 30 years ago.

Diana would, of course, be heartbroken by the estrangement of her boys. But the Princess would probably be less bewildered than him by all that has happened.

She was headstrong and rebelled against the “men in grey suits” at the Palace, just as her son has. Harry recognises there is a lot of his mother in him; he writes that he refused to believe she was dead for some time, and has tried to contact her via a medium. It is achingly sad.

At the heart of all this drama is a family tragedy, pitting brother against brother, father against son. The King has let it be known that the door is always open to the son he has often referred to as his “darling boy.” That could, of course, be a lie “planted” by the men in grey suits. But I doubt it. Charles is a sentimental soul and I believe that he just wants his sons to be happy.

When all the bloodletting is over, perhaps the time will be right for Harry to jump on a plane, drive to his dad’s and fling his arms around him. He complains that every private attempt at reconciliation has been leaked to the media. But what’s the worst that could happen? Headlines saying: “Harry still loves his dad” ?

That doesn’t seem too catastrophic to me.