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Prince Harry's Spare has become the United Kingdom's fastest selling non-fiction book ever, its publisher says, after days of TV interviews, leaks and a mistaken early release of the memoir containing intimate revelations about the royal family.

Harry's book has garnered attention around the world with its disclosures about his personal struggles and its accusations about other royals, including his father King Charles, stepmother Camilla and elder brother Prince William.

"We always knew this book would fly but it is exceeding even our most bullish expectations," Transworld Penguin Random House Managing Director Larry Finlay said in a statement.

"As far as we know, the only books to have sold more in their first day are those starring the other Harry (Potter)."

Citing UK sales figures, the publisher said it had sold 400,000 copies so far across hardback, e-book and audio formats.

Earlier in the day, Caroline Lennon, a retail worker and one of the eager readers who had headed to bookshops to get their copy on the first day of its release, said she would read the book immediately as she posed for photographers.

"I like him, I like the royal family," said Lennon, 59, the first and only person waiting to buy a copy from a Waterstone's bookshop in central London when it opened.

Despite the lack of queues, Waterstone's said there had been strong pre-orders for the memoir which currently ranks as the best-seller on Amazon's UK, US, Australian, German and Canadian websites.

"I know perhaps some of the things he says have rubbed different people the wrong way," Lai Jiang told Reuters after buying a copy in Singapore.

"And I know, definitely, there are a lot of people who say that he shouldn't come out and say the things he says but I believe Harry should be given a chance to say what he wants to say."

Spare is the latest revelatory offering from Harry and his wife Meghan since they stepped down from royal duties in 2020 and moved to California to forge a new life, and follows their Netflix documentary last month.

The royal family has not commented on the book or the interviews and is unlikely to do so.

Extracts from the book were leaked last Thursday when its Spanish language edition went on sale by mistake in some bookshops in Spain.

Harry speaks of his grief and growing up after the death of his mother Princess Diana when he was just 12, his use of cocaine and other drugs to cope, how he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving as a soldier in Afghanistan and even how he lost his virginity.

He also reveals a heated row with William, the heir to the throne, saying his brother knocked him over, and how they had both begged his father not to marry Camilla, who he wed in 2005 and is now the queen consort.

In TV interviews ahead of the book launch, Harry has doubled down on his accusations that some royals, including Camilla and William, leaked stories to tabloid papers which had damaged either him or his wife Meghan in order to protect themselves or enhance their reputations.

"I think she (his mother Diana) would be heartbroken about the fact that William, his office, were part of these stories," he told Good Morning America.

In another interview with CBS show 60 minutes, he said Camilla had been a tabloid "villain" and needed to rehabilitate her image, which made her "dangerous".

"I don't regard her as an evil stepmother. I see someone who married into this institution and has done everything that she can to, you know, improve her reputation and her own image," he told GMA.

© RAW 2023

Sydney boy Nicholas Tadros is facing a serious test on his body as he undergoes a major operation seven days after a helicopter crash that killed his mother and three others.

The 10-year-old is being treated in Queensland Children's Hospital after the chopper he was in collided with another helicopter and crashed into a sand bar near Sea World at the Gold Coast on December 2.

Four people in the helicopter died, including his mother Vanessa, 36, Britons Ron and Diane Hughes, 65 and 57, and 40-year-old pilot Ashley Jenkinson.

Nicholas was scheduled to undergo six surgeries for broken bones in his legs and hands in a six-hour operation on Tuesday, according to his father Simon Sim.

"This will be a major test on his body, lungs and heart," he wrote in a text message to friend Charlie Bakhos that was posted on Facebook.

"I know it's a bit late now to ask (people) to pray for tomorrow, I always miss the prayer sessions with you, it's too full on for me (at the moment)."

Mr Bakhos also urged people to pray for Nicholas, saying he had already had "some miracles" with his improving condition and surviving the "high-risk" transfer to Brisbane.

Victorian boy Leon de Silva, aged nine, who was in the same helicopter, is in a stable condition at the hospital after suffering a brain injury in the accident.

Leon's mother Winnie, 33, is also stable in a Gold Coast hospital after undergoing another operation for her injuries, which include two broken legs, a damaged left knee, a broken right shoulder and a broken collarbone.

"She's had a lot of pain, but her thoughts are really with Leon, so she's a tough girl," husband Neil de Silva told Seven's Sunrise program on Tuesday.

He spent Monday at the side of Leon, who was asleep for most of the day, but at one point said the word "dad" and gave him a thumbs-up.

New Zealand passengers Elmarie Steenberg and Marle Swart who suffered glass shrapnel injuries in the second helicopter are looking forward to continuing their recovery at home.

In a statement on the weekend, the Steenberg and Swart families expressed their sympathies to the other victims and their families, saying they continued to pray for Nicholas, Leon and Winnie.

"As we return home to New Zealand, we feel eternally grateful to have been spared and thank God for every day we can spend with our loved ones," the women and their husbands said.

The ATSB is probing the crash and expects to complete the investigation between July and September 2024.

Video footage from one of the choppers shows a passenger trying to warn pilot Michael James about the oncoming helicopter before the collision.

British-born pilot Mr Jenkinson will be farewelled by family and friends at a funeral service at Southport on Friday afternoon.

© AAP 2023

A year after Hollywood boycotted the Golden Globes, Brad Pitt, Steven Spielberg and other big names are set to return as organisers try to restore the lustre to what had been one of the biggest stops on the industry's awards circuit.

Most of this year's nominees are expected to attend the red-carpet ceremony in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, said Helen Hoehne, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that hands out the Globes.

"We've gotten a really great response from the nominees," said Hoehne, a German journalist elected in late 2021 to lead the group through diversity and ethics scandals. "We have very few not coming, so we are thrilled."

She vowed the night would be "the party of the year".

Now in their 80th year, the Globes had been known as a festive, alcohol-fuelled ceremony that kicked off Hollywood's awards season and helped propel nominees and winners in their quest for Academy Awards.

The future of the Globes was thrown into doubt after a 2021 Los Angeles Times investigation revealed the organisation had no black journalists in its ranks. Some members were accused of making sexist and racist remarks and soliciting favours from celebrities and movie studios.

Longtime broadcaster NBC dropped the 2022 telecast, but the Comcast Corp network agreed to air the ceremony again this year after the HFPA instituted changes and new ethics rules. Among roughly 200 voters, nearly 52 per cent are racially and ethnically diverse, including 10 per cent who are black.

"The organisation really went through a total reform process in the last 18 months," Hoehne said. "We increased diversity, transparency, accountability."

The lineup for Tuesday shows Hollywood appears ready to give the HFPA a shot at redemption.

Comedian Jerrod Carmichael, who is black, will host the three-hour ceremony, while Eddie Murphy will receive a lifetime achievement honour. Director Quentin Tarantino and actor Jamie Lee Curtis are listed among presenters.

Nominees expected to attend include Pitt and his Babylon co-star Margot Robbie, Spielberg and cast from his coming-of-age film The Fabelmans, The Woman King star Viola Davis, Avatar director James Cameron and singer Rihanna, a nominee for a song from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Australian nominees include Cate Blanchett for Tar, Hugh Jackman (The Son), Margot Robbie (Babylon), Baz Luhrmann (Elvis) and Elizabeth Debicki (The Crown).

Some celebrities will stay away.

Brendan Fraser, nominated for his leading role in The Whale, has said he will not attend after accusing a former HFPA president of groping him.

Tom Cruise is not expected to appear even though his blockbuster movie Top Gun: Maverick is nominated for best drama film. Cruise returned his three Globe statues in protest of the organisation's practices in 2021.

Chris Beachum, managing editor at awards website Gold Derby, said producers likely would stage a lively show, but there iwas a risk that some of the winners might skip the ceremony.

"It's a matter of how many people are getting their name called and not going on stage because they're not there. That's more of a an issue," he said.

Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water and Baz Luhrmann's Elvis biopic are among the contenders for best drama film. Dark comedy The Banshees of Inisherin leads all movies with eight nominations, and Abbott Elementary tops the field of TV contenders.

Even with the recent controversy, Beachum believes most actors, studios and publicists would be happy to have a Globe honour to tout as they head toward the Oscars in March.

"You want to be winning awards in this period of December, January and February," Beachum said. "You hardly ever see somebody go through an entire cycle, losing most everywhere and then winning the Oscar. It just doesn't happen."

© RAW 2023