Prince Harry’s memoir expected to be biggest selling non fiction book in Ireland

By Cate McCurry, PA

Spare, the memoir by Britain's Prince Harry, is expected to be the biggest selling non fiction book published in Ireland in the last 20 years.

Harry's controversial memoir looks set to break records in Ireland, after it sold more than 10,000 copies on its first day of publication.

Penguin Random House, who published the autobiography Spare on Tuesday, said it continues to sell strongly in all formats across Ireland.

While official figures will not be published until Tuesday, it looks set to beat the current record-holder, Paul O’Connell’s The Battle, which sold 17,800 in its first week during Christmas 2016.

Sensational sales of over 10,000 copies of Spare by Prince Harry in Ireland yesterday. It’s going to be close, but it looks like the first week’s sales may beat the best single-week sales of every non-fiction book published in Ireland over the past 20 years! pic.twitter.com/QeUoTQI8cf

— Michael McLoughlin (@MichaelPenguin) January 11, 2023

“Sensational sales of over 10,000 copies of Spare by Prince Harry in Ireland yesterday,” Michael McLoughlin, publisher of Penguin Random House Ireland, tweeted.

“It’s going to be close, but it looks like the first week’s sales may beat the best single-week sales of every non fiction book published in Ireland over the past 20 years!”

It’s understood sales of the tell-all memoir continues to build across Ireland, but official figures won’t be released until next week.

It is expected that Prince Harry’s book will sell more than ‘The Battle’ as the former Irish rugby player’s book was released ahead of Christmas, during the busy gifting period.

Penguin Random House confirmed on Thursday that the English language edition of the memoir sold more than 1.4 million copies on its first day of publication.

The publishing company reported their largest ever first-day sales total for any non fiction book.