London bookshops opened at midnight to meet demand for Prince Harry’s highly anticipated and controversial memoir.
The 410 paged book, Spare, finally hit shelves all around the world today, after a chaotic build up saw multiple leaks, and an accidental early release in Spain.
Waterstones, a popular bookstore chain in the United Kingdom, says Prince Harry's book has been one of its biggest pre-order titles for a decade.
Several booksellers extended their opening hours in expectation of high customer demand, but the weather dampened the appetite of those willing to queue for the purchase in London.
A handful of fans were in line at Victoria Station at midnight, surrounded by media, claiming they were “nosy” and “wanted to read it for themselves.”
At Waterstones’ flagship Piccadilly branch in central London, there was only one person waiting at the doors when it opened at 8am.
Caroline Lennon left home at 6am to secure her spot.
“I did expect a queue. Unfortunately, there's no queue. I'm just by myself…”
Lennon queued to buy Princess Diana’s biography in 1992, “It was mad. Everyone was grabbing the books. But today I am the only one!”
Spare has been published in 16 languages and is already top of the best sellers for the online retailer Amazon, in the UK, the United States and Canada.
The memoir details some of the most personal conflicts and tensions within the royal family, describing incidents of physical aggression between the two brothers.
The book also claims Prince Harry and Prince William begged their father not to marry Camilla, that Harry killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan, that he has used drugs.
Buckingham Palace has not responded.
Opinion polling from YouGov, published on the January 9 shows a dip in Prince Harry's popularity in the UK.
There were 64 percent of people who had a negative view of Prince Harry, compared with 26 percent who had a positive view of him, down from 33 percent just a couple of months ago.
It is the lowest figure in more than a decade of this regular survey.
