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N the Republic of Ireland, the Centenary of the Irish Free State helped boost History & Military sales by 15 per cent compared to
pre-pandemic 2019, where UK sales rose a lesser three per cent. Ireland’s larger increase in sales was driven almost entirely by titles focusing on Irish history, culture and folklore specifically, with John Creedon’s An Irish Folklore Treasury coming in top for the category. We shall see what this year’s events brings for the UK in terms of generating interest in all aspects of our history and legacy.
Nielsen tracks retail sales of print books through our BookScan service, and library loans through our LibScan services. Through the voluntary submission of data from retailers and libraries, we can track overall bestsellers and trends across the UK. Books are a valuable way to learn about the world from new perspectives and in new areas. What can the top loaned and sold titles tell us about the topics people are most drawn to? Broadly within Non-Fiction, Memoir
Highest Library Loans 2022 (Formats combined)
Title 1 Empireland
2 The Spy and the Traitor 3 Ancestors
4 Black Gold 5 The Anglo-Saxons
6 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
7 Black and British 8 The Escape Artist
9 Operation Pedestal 10 Barbarossa
Author
Sathnam Sanghera Ben MacIntyre Alice Roberts
Jeremy Paxman Marc Morris
Yuval Noah Harari David Olusoga Jonathan Freedland
Max Hastings Jonathan Dimbleby
It is exciting to see books exploring historically underrepresented perspectives on British history being bought and loaned in such high numbers...
With a Coronation happening this year, such a historical event may draw increased interest to Non-Fiction in general and History & Military in particular.
& Biographies is the most popular sold and loaned category, with a 15 per cent share of sales and 17 per cent share of Trade Non-Fiction loans in 2022. The second most popular Non- Fiction category in the library loans Nielsen tracked in 2022 was History & Military, with a 10 per cent share. This is higher than for retail sales, which saw the category taking a seven per cent share of Trade Non-Fiction sales and making it the fifth highest-selling Non-Fiction category. With libraries seeing this higher share of this category compared to loans, they are a particularly valuable place for readers to discover new titles and topics. Looking at the top History & Military titles loaned and bought in 2022 we see a huge range of time periods, focuses, and perspectives, with an emphasis on British history, from The Anglo-Saxons with Marc Morris’ History of the Beginnings of Britain, through to the Industrial Revolution with Jeremy Paxman’s Black Gold, all the way to the present day with Yuval Noah Harai’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.
War history is popular, with Ben
Highest Book Sales 2022 (Formats combined)
Title 1 SAS Rogue Heroes
2 Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle
3 Empireland 4 The Anglo-Saxons
5 The Shortest History of Engand
6 SAS Great Escapes 7 The Escape Artist 8 Ancestors
9 The Abyss: The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
10 Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921
April-May 2023 Author
Ben MacIntyre Ben MacIntyre
Sathnem Sanghera
Marc Morris James Hawes
Damien Lewis
Jonathan Freedland Alice Roberts
Max Hastings Antony Beevor
Suzy Warnock is Account Manager at Nielsen BookData.
MacIntyre’s World War II title, SAS: Rogue Heroes enjoying a huge boost in sales with the release of the BBC TV adaptation, pushing it up to the number one in the History & Military category for 2022. Library loans didn’t quite match this enthusiasm, preferring his The Spy and the Traitor Cold War- focused title. Other titles focusing on World War II also feature prominently in both charts, with Jonathan Freedland’s The Escape Artist finding a place in the top 10 for loans and sales in 2022. Even more popular than war stories, though, was Sathnam Sanghera’s exploration of the legacy of British Imperialism, Empireland, which was the most loaned History & Military title in 2022, and the third highest selling. It is exciting to see books exploring historically underrepresented perspectives on British history being bought and loaned in such high numbers, with a title with similar themes, David Olusoga’s Black and British, being the seventh highest loaned title in the History & Military category in 2022 as well. See the full top ten titles in History & Military for 2022 in the accompanying table (different formats of each title have been combined where applicable). It should go without saying how valuable it is to have libraries providing such a diverse range of Non-Fiction for free. There is always something more to learn about the world and the UK, and libraries provide an accessible space to discover these new perspectives and stories. IP
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