18th July 2025


Data source Date range 2025 Weeks 1-27


Bestselling History & Military


1 A History of the World…


Jonn Elledge Wildfire, 9781472298546


2 SAS: Rogue Heroes


Ben Macintyre Penguin, 9780241996904


3 A History of Britain… 32,516


Terry Deary Penguin (Transworld), 9781804994979


4 The Siege


Ben Macintyre Penguin, 9781405961745


5 Unruly


David Mitchell Penguin, 9781405953191


6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20


The Wager David Grann Simon & Schuster, 9781471183706


Victory ’45 James Holland, Al Murray Bantam Books, 9780857507952


Sword Max Hastings William Collins, 9780008699758


Crypt Alice Roberts Simon & Schuster, 9781398519251


Cassino ’44 James Holland Penguin (Transworld), 9781804993637


22,982 14,816 14,329 12,917 12,688


Auschwitz: A Mother’s Story R Winter-Levy Monoray, 9781800962309


Arnhem: Black Tuesday Al Murray Penguin (Transworld), 9781804995457


Endgame 1944 Jonathan Dimbleby Penguin, 9780241993712


11,567 11,226 10,659


A Short History of…50 Failures Ben Gazur Michael O'Mara, 9781789297089


Empireworld Sathnam Sanghera Penguin, 9780241997086


9,601 9,378


D-Day: The Unheard Tapes Geraint Jones Pan Books, 9781035049677


Operation Suicide Robert Lyman Quercus, 9781529440065


Normal Women Philippa Gregory William Collins, 9780008601690


38 Londres Street Philippe Sands Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 9781474620741


9,300 9,268 8,732 8,012


A Short History of…50 Lies Natasha Tidd Michael O'Mara, 9781789295269


7,777 50 Charts


Wrong side of history: Historical hardbacks fighting a losing battle


T


hus far in 2025, the sales reported from NielsenIQ BookScan’s Total Consumer Market


(TCM) have shown that while bookshops across the country are selling fewer books they are selling them at a greater price – with value sales falling at a slower rate than volume. Not so in the History & Military


category, which has bucked the trend with both volume and value sales dropping at the same rate – and much faster than the rest of the TCM. While the wider market has seen volume sales drop 2.1% and value sales drop 0.2%, the History & Military cate- gory has seen a fall of 7.4% for both.


That means that, while it might


be tempting to attribute volume decline in other categories to rising prices, it is not an argument that holds water here, with the average selling price rising just one penny to £13.17. That ASP, however, is nearly £4 higher than the rest of the TCM, so it is possible that while prices are not rising, already-high prices have scared off customers. In support of that theory, hard-


back sales in the category in 2025 to date are down nearly a fifth compared with the same period in 2024, while paperbacks are much more aligned to the rest of the market, with value down just 0.01% and volume contracting by 2.7%. Leading the paperbacks – and the entire category – is Jonn Elledge’s


26,947 30,252 34,378 36,028


Hardback sales in History & Military in 2025 to date are down nearly a fifth compared with the same period in 2024


Charts Market Spotlight


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56