Puzzle book beats Spare to top award
PRINCE Harry’s memoir Spare was beaten at last night’s British Book Awards in every category it was nominated.
The Duke of Sussex’s controversial tell-all work was the UK’s bestselling book in 2023, packed with revelations and explosive Royal Family gossip.
But during the prestigious ceremony in London last night he lost out to a children’s writer, a puzzle book and the memoirs of a former MP.
Spare, released last January, missed out on the book of the year award, which went to a puzzle book for the first time – Murdle by GT Karber. In the non-fiction narrative category he lost to Politics On The Edge by former international development secretary Rory Stewart. Harry also missed out on being crowned author of the year, which went to children’s writer Katherine Rundell who created the fantasy series Impossible Creatures.
Harry’s memoir covered a range of intimate topics, including losing his virginity to an older woman, his drug use and private arguments with members of his family, and sold 706,978 copies.
The panel of judges, who announced their winners at a ceremony at Park Lane’s Grosvenor House, included authors, illustrators and trade professionals, as well as celebrities Adrian Chiles, Lorraine Kelly, Maddie Moate, Janet Ellis, Toby Jones, Nihal Arthanayake and Shappi Khorsandi.
The book of the year, GT Karber’s Murdle, was Christmas number one and is described as ‘100 simple to impossible mysteries to solve using logic, skill, and the power of deduction’.
Rebecca F Kuang won the fiction book of the year prize for the second year in a row, this time for Yellowface, following last year’s win for Babel.