Prince Harry’s explosive memoir Spare was the bestselling book of 2023 in the UK, figures have revealed.
The Duke of Sussex’s autobiography, which was published in January last year, sold more than 700,000 copies – meaning it outsold the second entry in the list by around 180,000 copies, according to data obtained by The Bookseller.
Elsewhere in the top five books from last year are two entries from Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die and The Bullet That Missed – as well as a Bored of Lunch cookbook and Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry.
The top 20 also features entries from popular authors Colleen Hoover and Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Spare sent shockwaves throughout The Firm as Harry launched unprecedented attacks on members of the royal family including Prince William and Queen Camilla.
Among its explosive claims were that the Prince and Princess of Wales encouraged him to dress in a Nazi uniform in a notorious 2005 appearance at a fancy-dress party.
Harry claims he was considering either the Nazi uniform or a pilot’s outfit to a ‘Native and Colonial’ themed event and called his brother and sister-in-law for their opinion.
Elsewhere in the memoir, he claimed he and Prince William begged King Charles not to marry Queen Camilla, whom he thought of as a ‘wicked stepmother’ at the time.
He also accused the Queen of having a ‘long-term strategy, a campaign directed at marriage and with time, the Crown (with the blessing of our father, we supposed).’
The Duke of Sussex wrote: ‘I remember wondering… if she would be cruel to me; if she would be like all the wicked stepmothers in the stories.’
Although the contents of the book reportedly left members of the royal family, including Queen Camilla, ‘hurt’ by accusations hurled at them, figures obtained by The Bookseller show that UK readers were enthralled by Prince Harry’s story.
In total it sold 706,978 copies, followed by Richard Osman’s The Last Devil to Die, which trailed in second place at 529,532.
However, despite missing out on the top spot, Osman comfortably outsold the Duke of Sussex with his total sales of the year – as he enjoyed a total of four of the top 20 spots.
