French publisher forced to print 130,000 more Prince Harry books due to demand
The Duke of Sussex's memoir Spare sold 1.4 million copies on its first day in Britain
Prince Harry’s autobiography Spare is doing so well in France that publishers have launched a fresh print run after the first 210,000 copies flew off the shelves.
The book sold 1.4 million English-language copies on its first day in Britain, the United States and Canada, smashing Penguin Random House's sales record.
More surprising was its runaway success in France, despite the country’s revolutionary penchant for cutting off its monarchs’ heads.
Strong orders for the French version of Prince Harry's tell-all memoir led Paris-based publishing house Fayard to print 130,000 extra copies only two days after the book went on sale. The publisher could not yet give exact sales figures.
Despite their Republican values, the French have long displayed a fascination for British royalty. Seven out of ten French people recently expressed a positive opinion of the Royal family.
Emmanuel Macron even once claimed that France was eternally nostalgic for the monarchy, and that “the (French) king’s disappearance had left a vacuum at the head of state”.
After the Queen’s death, the French president issued an emotional tribute to Britain and the “Queen of hearts” and his prime minister Elisabeth Borne instructed town halls and other public buildings to lower the Tricolour to half-mast.
King Charles to make state visit to France
In the latest sign of proximity, it emerged that King Charles will make his first state visit to the country in March to build bridges post-Brexit.
The visit, pencilled in for the week of March 27, will include a state dinner at the Elysee Palace and a meeting between Camilla and France's first lady Brigitte Macron, according to Le Parisien.
Mr Macron is said to have extended an official invitation to the King when he travelled to London for the Queen’s funeral. “I think the British people and the King felt France’s deep affection for them and the emotion we shared,” he said at the time.
While the King will receive full honours, France’s most famous royalty commentator, Stéphane Berne, poured scorn on his son's memoir.
“Recounting his cocaine experiences, his drinking binges, his first experience with an older woman, drunk behind a pub, washing his dirty laundry outside the palace, all make for a somewhat pathetic and pitiful sight,” speaking Europe 1.
"One has the impression that he has lost all sense of decency, of what should be said or not said. What is excessive is insignificant. I find it excessive.”