IN BRIEF Top 10 UK


Fiction from Gail Honeyman and Heather Morris, as well as Adam Kay’s hit memoir, proved relentless sellers across formats last year


Text Kiera O’Brien 3


Bestseller Lists UK Top 10


1


Gail’s in Fine fettle


of the charts


It was hard to miss the Oliphant in the room in the UK in 2018. Gail Honeyman’s début was garlanded with awards, from the Costa First Novel to the Nibbies Book of the Year, spent 19 weeks atop the e-book chart, sold a stomping 866,200 copies in paperback and, most impor- tantly of all, gave Te Bookseller staff ample opportunities for elephant puns.


Kay’s junior doctor memoir scrubs up well


medical memoir


Adam Kay’s Tis is Going to Hurt was the biggest- selling non-fiction title of 2018, with 541,219 copies sold in paperback—beating Michelle Obama by a whisker under 7,500 copies. Te junior doctor memoir has now spent longer in the Paperback Non-fiction number one than any other title, at 36 weeks (and counting). Having seen its sales boosted over the summer holiday period, Christmas and, er, Valentine’s Day, Tis is Going to Hurt is certainly offering us an interesting insight into the average UK book-buyer’s current mindset. With its final chapter a call to arms to save the NHS, a torrent of similar “normal people” memoirs are already following in its wake.


5


Chef Kerridge throws his Weight around


Tom Kerridge’s Lose Weight for with a bang,


Weight for


Good started 2018 with a bang, e bigges dback of Donald nd Fury


setting records as the biggest- selling January har back of all time and beating Donald Trump exposé Fire and Fury— which, at the time was the


, w


world’s most sought-after book-after book— to the number one spot. s


pot.


With 406,665 copies sold, the cookbook was easily the bestselling Food & Drink title of last year.


was g


8


Kinney’s Meltdown fails to match predecessors


In late October last year, Jeff Kinney’s The Meltdown gave the author his first overall UK number one since 2015; a week later, Walliams’ The Ice Monster conquered all. (Had it been the other way around, the headline would have written itself.) Though no longer at his mercurial best, Kinney is still a sales behemoth—he sold more than a million books in the UK in 2018, earning a whisker under £6m through bookseller tills.


12 12th March 2019 6


Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of


Auschwitz had already sold over 100,000 hardbacks and topped the e-book charts for months before its paperback, released in October, sold a further 350,000 copies


9 Lee draws the Line


Lee Child’s The Midnight Line clocked up 354,769 copies sold in 2018, and the next hardback in his Jack Reacher series, Past Tense, scored 17th place for the year.


Hit


Top


2


Monster races out the traps to bag HC one-two


David Walliams’ The Ice Monster notched up a mammoth first week back in November, shifting 111,057 copies—making it the fastest-selling title since Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in summer 2016. Illustrated by Tony Ross, The Ice Monster sold over a quarter of a million copies more than any other children’s book last year. Its 624,913 copies sold gave HarperCollins an elephantine top two.


4 First Lady firsts


The first woman of colour to claim an overall UK number one since records began, Michelle Obama’s Becoming sold a stunning 533,727 copies—and topped the charts at Christmas.


7


Walliams and Ross do their Worst with trilogy


The third and final title in David Walliams and Tony Ross’ short story collection trilogy, he World’s Worst Children 3 immediately bec


children’s book of the year on its releases release nly to be


in May—only t


topped by the next Walliams, The Ic Monster, at the ele enth hour Still, 365,606 copies sold is not tot t at.


The Ice


at the elev- . Still, opies


be sniffed at. 10


Guinness World Records 2019


shifted 352,121 copies to claim 10th. Publisher Guinness has the best book-to-value ratio in the market: with four books released in 2018, it earned £4.2m


T eWorld s Worst Children 3 ely became the bestselling book of the


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