Prince Harry sets Irish book record with over 20,000 copies sold here

The controversial tome now is Ireland’s best-selling non-fiction book since records began, with first week sales of 20,584 copies across the hardback format in the Irish market.

“The sales of 20,584 hardback copies of Spare by Prince Harry in Ireland last week would be exceptional at any time, but in January they are unprecedented. It is the largest ever one-week sale of any non-fiction book in the last 20 years,” said Michael McLoughlin, MD of Penguin Random House Ireland.

“We are grateful for the tremendous efforts bookshops have made to bring the book to readers,”

Prince Harry is believed to have got an advance of £17 million (€19 million) for the book, with 1.4 million copies shifted in the US, UK and Canada combined on its first day of release.

It also set a record in the UK for 400,000 copies sold on its first day of release alone last Tuesday.

The previous record from the same publishing company was Barack Obama’s ‘A Promised Land’, which sold mover than 887,000 copies in the US and Canada November 2020.

The Prince maintains he wishes to support British charities with donations from his proceeds from Spare, which details several headline grabbing aspects of his private life and interactions with the British royal family.

The Duke of Sussex has donated $1,500,000 to Sentebale, an organisation he founded with Prince Seeiso in their mothers' legacies, which supports vulnerable children and young people in Lesotho and Botswana affected by HIV/AIDS.

Prince Harry will also donate to the non-profit organisation WellChild in the amount of £300,000. WellChild, which he has been Royal patron of for 15 years, makes it possible for children and young people with complex health