Lone reader queues for Prince Harry's release of Spare

It is one of the most hotly anticipated memoirs of the year - yet on Tuesday morning when copies of Prince Harry's book Spare finally went on sale in London, sparse queues suggested something of an anticlimax.

While many London bookshops opened early to accommodate eager crowds, reminiscent of another Harry's debut back in the 1990s, staff were surprised when the expected onrush of buyers failed to appear.

One woman told BBC Radio 4: "I thought there would be a queue round the block. But I've turned up at 6am and there's noone here, I'm on my own."

Caroline Lennon, 59, said: "I'm here because I like Harry, and I like Harry and Meghan and I don't care what anybody says about me."

Waiting outside Waterstones Piccadilly, she told the Daily Mail: "My personal feeling with Harry and William is they should connect. There's no love between them, there's no love with that family. He and William need to get their heads together and make up for God's sake. Life is too short."

"I don't care what anybody says. People will criticise me and say 'what an idiot for liking Harry. What an idiot for queuing up', but I don't care what anyone says," she added.

A trickle of further customers followed, including James Bradley, 61, from Hammersmith, the third person to buy the book in Piccadilly. Just three people bought the book during the first hour of opening.

He said he felt there would be limited damage to the Royal Family from the book.

"We've had decades of this. It's fine. It's just more of the same. They just have to shrug it off and carry on being the royal family," he said.

"After the Queen's death, the royal family's stock has never been higher in my lifetime and this will just bounce off. In six months' time we won't be talking about this. It's a good distraction from strikes and all the problems we're having in this horrible winter. It's a bit of light entertainment."

Only a small crowd could be seen outside WH Smith in Victoria station, central London, when it opened at midnight for buyers to get their hands on the first copies.

The sparse queues could partly be attributed to much of the book's most controversial moments having been leaked after it mistakenly went on sale in Spain before its official publication date.

The book's revelations have included that the prince took illegal drugs as a young man, an account of how he lost his virginity, recollections of an alleged physical attack by his brother, the Prince of Wales, and, poignantly, details of the impact his mother's death had upon him as a child and how he believed for years she was really living in hiding.

The first customers at Victoria were handed copies as photographers captured the moment before staff started putting half-price stickers on to copies and stacking them on specially-designed shelving units near the front of the shop.

Waiting outside the shop, bartender Sasha Pursell, 27, who has moved to London from Melbourne, Australia, said: "I'm just intrigued. I've heard so much press about the book and it's also just a bit exciting - I've never been to a midnight release."

Asked about the criticism surrounding the book, she said: "Yes, it can be seen as a betrayal to the Royal Family, but, at the same time, I feel like a lot of lies have been spewed about him.

"It can go both ways. I don't think either party is in the right or the wrong."

Sarah Nakana, 46, a surveyor from Dulwich, south-east London, said she had already downloaded the audiobook as she picked up a copy, saying she wanted to try to "get ahead of the British press and their narratives".

While in person queues were lower than expected, it is anticipated that online sales of the book will do well. The Kindle edition was number 4 on the Amazon UK charts on the day of its release.