The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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Brand top, as market inches ahead

02.01.08 Philip Stone

Russell Brand is the UK's official 2007 Christmas number one thanks to a weekly sale through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market of 112,379. Brand helped lead the late Christmas rush predicted by many retail analysts, with the week-on-week revenue increase through the TCM of 26.2% much higher than the 17.1% increase recorded last year. The £95.5m spent through the TCM in the seven days to 22nd December up just 0.02% up on the same week in 2006.

Brand's My Booky Wook held off strong competition from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express (Chatto) and Hachette Livre stablemate Richard Hammond, whose On the Edge sold 102,387 in the final shopping week before Christmas, less than 2,000 copies off Nigella's weekly sale.

With Top Gear colleague Jeremy Clarkson holding on to fourth position with Don't Stop Me Now (Michael Joseph), it meant there were no changes among the top four titles week-on-week, though the second instalment of Sharon Osbourne's autobiography, Survivor: My Story - The Next Chapter, also a Hachette Livre title, and Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home, also a Michael Joseph title, experienced impressive week-on-week sales increases to occupy fifth and sixth spots respectively. Both titles increased their weekly sale by more than 60% during Christmas week to sell over 50,000 copies during the biggest week for retailers.

Although only two titles sold more than 100,000 units through the TCM in Christmas week in 2006, compared to three this year, Peter Kay's The Sound of Laughter (Century) and the New Scientist's Why Don't Penguins Feet Freeze (Profile) proved more popular, shifting 165,462 and 129,986 copes respectively. However, the official 'Christmas week' ended a day earlier this year, on Saturday 22nd, as opposed to Saturday 23rd last year, so an extra Christmas shopping day will fall over into the current week's data.

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