Seasoned pro Ben Macintyre has bagged two spots in this week's Top 10
Comedian David Mitchell makes it into the top five with Unruly
A History of the World in 47 Borders, with 36,028 copies earning £347,386. The hardback edition was published in April 2024 and to the end of June had racked up £94,103, giving Elledge a year-on- year increase of 269.2%. That one book alone is enough
to put Elledge third on the author ranking, just £13,000 behind Max Hastings, but significantly trailing the top-placed category stalwart Ben Macintyre. With two books in the Top 10, Macintyre has earned £714,851, 384.1% more than he earned in 2024, a period in which, with no releases, the author still hit a very respectable 20th spot on our list. Several re-issues from
In the Spotlight
Bloomsbury in the summer of 2024 and a high-profile second series of the TV adaptation of SAS: Rogue Heroes, plus the paperback release of The Siege, has helped Macintyre take the top spot so far this year – with two of his titles appearing in the top five. Hastings, meanwhile, has
David Grann The Wager William Collins, £10.99, 9781471183706
Published at the beginning of January 2024, David Grann’s The Wager was the bestselling title in History & Military by the year’s midpoint and was one of just two titles in the category that sold more than 100,000 across the full span of 2024, ending in second place behind David Mitchell’s Unruly. So far in 2025, its sales number is down 67% to 22,982 copies – but that is enough to keep it in sixth place on the chart.
22,982 TCM copies sold
jumped to second place from fourth, despite his sales slipping 2.9%. Hastings is responsible for one of just two hardbacks that have sold more than 10,000 copies so far this year – Sword has shifted 14,329 units, down 12.5% compared
with 2024’s Operation Biting – and accounting for £9,559 of the author’s £11,049 drop. Despite his success in the overall
author chart, Hastings has to concede the biggest hardback of the year so far to podcasting duo James Holland and Al Murray whose Victory ’45 has sold 487 more copies – though with a slightly lower RRP, the two find their offering delivering £26,000 less than Hastings. These two biggest hardbacks
have totalled up £491,370 so far in 2025 – compare that to the seven hardback titles that sold more than 10,000 copies in the equivalent period in 2024 and you get a sense of where the loss has come from. Those seven titles were
responsible for putting £1.7m in the tills last year, led by Alice Roberts’ Crypt with £358,106. Roberts finds herself at the mercy of the release schedule with her newest title, Domination, planned for August – but most of 2024’s biggest History & Military authors – including David Mitchell, Bettany Hughes and Sathnam Sanghera – do not have a title due in this calendar year. The poor hardback performance
is not for a lack of trying from the publishers – there have been 1,013 hardback new releases in 2025 so far, just five short of 2024’s number – but it seems they simply are not appealing as much as 2024’s cohort.
REPORTING Alex Call 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
The Rest Is History T Holland, D Sandbrook Bloomsbury, 9781526667731
7,740
The History of the World…Chunks E Marriott Michael O'Mara, 9781782437079
Sword Beach Stephen Fisher Penguin (Transworld), 9781804991497
The Siege Ben Macintyre Viking, 9780241675670
The Spy and the Traitor Ben Macintyre Penguin, 9780241972137
7,533 7,461 7,445 7,088
A…History of Israel-Palestine Conflict I Pappé Oneworld, 9780861549719
The Seven Wonders of the…World B Hughes Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 9781474610346
Blitz Kids Duncan Barrett, Nuala Calvi Headline, 9781472285973
The Golden Road William Dalrymple Bloomsbury, 9781408864432
The Ministry of…Warfare Damien Lewis Quercus, 9781529432336
6,676 6,447 6,426 6,410 6,367
The Stable Boy of Auschwitz D Ford, H Oster Thread, 9781804190869
Voices of Victory Geraint Jones Macmillan, 9781035070046
Fall of Civilizations Paul Cooper Duckworth, 9780715655481
6,349 6,344 6,219
1945…Year to Be Born! R Bennett-Freebairn Emersive, 9781738562923
Secrets of Churchills War Rooms J Asbury Imperial War Museum, 9781912423149
6,088 5,933
How to Kill a Witch C Mitchell, Z Venditozzi Monoray, 9781800961883
5,898
The Hundred Years… on Palestine R I Khalidi Profile, 9781781259344
A Gypsy in Auschwitz Otto Rosenberg Monoray, 9781800961128
How the World Made the West J Quinn Bloomsbury, 9781526605221
SAS: Rogue Heroes Ben Macintyre Viking, 9780241186862
5,845 5,798 5,755 5,383
Emperor of Rome Professor Mary Beard Profile, 9781846683794
Allies at War Tim Bouverie The Bodley Head, 9781847926227
A History of…Ten Enemies Terry Deary Bantam Books, 9780857506351
The Rest is… D Sandbrook,Tom Holland Bloomsbury, 9781526668677
Witchcraft Marion Gibson Simon & Schuster, 9781398508538
5,269 5,146 4,870 4,836 4,680
A History of…Twelve Shipwrecks D Gibbins Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 9781399603508
The Lost Paths Jack Cornish Penguin, 9781405951296
The Buried City Gabriel Zuchtriegel Hodder, 9781399731171
SPQR Professor Mary Beard Profile, 9781846683817
Beyond the Wall Katja Hoyer Penguin, 9780141999340
4,667 4,663 4,632 4,615 4,577 51
Charts Market Spotlight
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