Prince Harry’s book Spare: Rotorua millennials and royalists divided on opinions of the ‘polarising’ royal

McLeods Booksellers operations manager Gabrielle West with Prince Harry's new book Spare. Photo / Andrew Warner

Young millennials and older royalists appear to be divided in their opinions over Prince Harry’s controversial memoir, a Rotorua bookseller says.

However, she says, “like him or loathe him though, everyone wants to read the book”.

The book, Spare, went on sale in New Zealand on Wednesday but many of its revelations had already made headlines thanks to online leaks, with booksellers in Spain releasing it early.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, had also given four interviews ahead of the official launch.

But many Kiwis want to read the book for themselves, with one librarian saying the spoilers had only increased interest.

Prince Harry toured Rotorua in 2018 with his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who was later reported as saying she had ‘hated every minute’ of the ‘pointless’ New Zealand and Australian trip.

In 2020 they stepped back as senior members of the royal family and moved to the United States.

McLeods Booksellers owner Prue des Forges said the popularity of Prince Harry’s book had been “much as expected”.

“We only have six left on the shelves with more on order,” she said on Thursday.

In order to have the book on release day, the shop had to order “at least 21″ books.

Des Forges said it had six pre-orders, all of whom picked up their copy on release day.

It was mostly female readers buying the book, she said.

“Harry seems to be quite a polarising figure - the young ‘millennials’ seem very sympathetic towards him and older ‘royalists’ feel he is being disloyal, just out to make a quick buck.

“Like him or loathe him though, everyone wants to read the book, probably to reinforce their already formed opinions —whether they admit it or not.”

Des Forges said most people had also commented on the price. Its recommended retail price was $65.

“We are selling it for $59.99 in line with most other retailers.”

Prince Harry's new book Spare, on display at McLeods Booksellers in Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner

Whitcoulls Rotorua sales assistant Alex Vincent said there was “extremely high demand” for the book.

“A lot of readers come in really excited for it.”

Paper Plus Rotorua Central inwards goods storeperson Jaz Akurangi said there had been lots of interest.

“[We] had lots of phone calls the day it got released.”

Akurangi said she thought it would be mainly older royalist types buying the book but it had been selling to a “mixture” of younger and older readers.

Rotorua Library Te Aka Mauri learning, programmes and promotions lead Joanne Dillon said it had ordered two copies of the book but was yet to receive them.

“We have 16 library borrowers on the waiting list to borrow a copy.”

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, at the Redwoods forest in Rotorua in 2018. Photo / Dean Purcell

Tauranga City Libraries content team leader Michelle Sims said it ordered 15 copies of the regular print version, which had 85 ‘holds’ as of Thursday afternoon.

“We’ve ordered four copies of the large print version and there are 23 holds on those, and two copies of the audiobook version and there are four holds on those.”

It would also order the e-book versions but these would not come out until April, she said.

“I would say this is one of the largest levels of demand for a specific title that I can recall. We normally get a lot of demand for Lee Child ... and Lucinda Riley of The Seven Sisters series has been another one that we’ve had a lot of interest in.”

Michelle Obama’s 2018 book Becoming also had a lot of interest, she said.

“But this is a very high amount of interest in one title for us, certainly.”

Sims said the spoilers which started coming out in the media last week had increased demand for the book and piqued people’s interest.

On January 5, it had about 30 holds on the regular print versions with 10 copies on order.

“But by Monday... we had, I think, about 65 holds by Monday so we ordered five more copies.

“Since then, it continues to grow.”

Readers hiring the regular print version would need to pay $3 to borrow it for two weeks, as it was a “top title”.

“Those people who are getting it now will have no opportunity to renew - they’ll have to read it in the two weeks because there’s a massive holds list ... they’d only be able to renew if somebody was not waiting for it.

“So people are going to have to have a pretty quick turnaround,” she said, with a laugh.