Prince Harry’s explosive memoir Spare was the best-selling book in Britain last year with more than 700,000 copies sold – beating Richard Osman and the Guinness Book of World Records

Prince Harry’s explosive memoir Spare was the best-selling book of 2023 in Britain, figures show.

The Duke of Sussex’s autobiography, which was published in January last year, has sold more than 700,000 copies. The bookseller.

Elsewhere in last year’s top five books are two entries from Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die and The Bullet That Missed – as well as a cookbook from Bored of Lunch and Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry.

The top 20 also includes entries from popular authors Colleen Hoover and Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Spare sent shockwaves through The Firm as Harry launched unprecedented attacks on members of the royal family, including Prince William and Queen Camilla.

One of the explosive claims was that the Prince and Princess of Wales encouraged him to dress in a Nazi uniform during an infamous 2005 appearance at a fancy dress party.

Harry claims he was considering the Nazi uniform or a pilot’s outfit for a ‘Native and Colonial’ themed event and called his brother and sister-in-law for their opinions.

Elsewhere in the memoir, he claimed that he and Prince William begged King Charles not to marry Queen Camilla, whom he considered an “evil stepmother” at the time.

He also accused the Queen of pursuing a “long-term strategy, a campaign aimed at marriage and ultimately the Crown (with our father’s blessing, we assumed).”

The 2023 UK book sales figures, obtained by The Bookseller, show that Prince Harry’s memoir Spare (left) and Richard Osman’s The Last Devil to Die (right) were the top 2 books last year

In third and fourth place were Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and The Bullet that Missed, also by Richard Osman

Bored of Lunch, a cookbook by Nathan Anthony, appeared twice in the top 10, which separates sales of paperbacks and hardbacks

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (right) and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin also made the top 10

Non-fiction books The Guinness Book of World Records and the murder mystery puzzle book Murdle also made the top 10

The Duke of Sussex wrote: ‘I remember wondering… if she would be cruel to me; if she were like all the evil stepmothers in the stories.’

Although members of the royal family, including Queen Camilla, were reportedly ‘hurt’ by the book’s contents by the accusations hurled at them, figures from The Bookseller show that British readers were captivated by Prince Harry’s story.

It sold a total of 706,978 copies, followed by Richard Osman’s The Last Devil to Die, which finished in second place with 529,532.

However, despite missing out on top spot, Osman comfortably surpassed the Duke of Sussex with his total sales for the year – as he took a total of four of the top 20 places.

Another hugely popular author among British readers last year was Colleen Hoover, who also occupied four of the twenty best-selling books.

It Ends With Us, Verity and IT Starts With Us all made the list – with the latter mentioned twice to include both hardback and paperback sales.