Harry’s book opens at a record sales pace

The English language edition of the Duke of Sussex’s controversial memoir has sold more than 1.4 million copies on its first day of publication.

Penguin Random House, who published the headline-grabbing autobiography Spare on Tuesday, reported its largest first-day sales total for any non-fiction book published by the company.

According to the publisher, the English language edition of Spare sold more than 1,430,000 units in all formats and editions in the United States, Canada and the UK on January 10 when it first hit bookshop shelves.

The book includes claims that the Prince of Wales physically attacked him and teased him about his panic attacks, and that the King put his own interests above Harry’s and was jealous of the Duchess of Sussex and the Princess of Wales.

In a US broadcast promoting the work, Harry branded Duchess of Cornwall the “villain” and “dangerous”, accusing her of rehabilitating her image at the expense of his.

Spare was published in 16 languages and was released simultaneously in print and digital formats in North America by Random House US and Random House Canada, and in the United Kingdom by Transworld.

An unabridged audio edition of the book, read by Harry, was also published by Penguin Random House Audio.

The first US printing of Spare was two million copies, however the book has now gone back to press for additional copies to meet demand, according to Penguin Random House.

As the duke continued a run of high-profile promotional interviews, he said he “would like nothing more” than for his children to have relationships with the royal family.

His remarks about his son and daughter came despite the criticism he has levelled at his brother William, father Charles and stepmother Camilla.

Bookshops in the UK opened early on Tuesday to offer Harry’s book, but queues were sparse after leaks ahead of the publication, with industry experts predicting Spare would be one of the best-selling pre-order titles of the past decade.