Dual Jewell: Lisa is not letting anyone else into the charts
Lisa Jewell’s Don’t Let Him In (Cornerstone) has kept hold of the Official UK Number one for a second consecutive week, according to the latest data from NielsenIQ BookData’s Total Consumer Market (TCM).
In its first full week on sale, Jewell’s paperback sold 16,421 copies – a rise of 9.4% compared with 15,008 units the previous seven-day period with its total was based on three days following its publication. This means, of course, that Jewell manages to retain first place in the Mass-Market Fiction (MMF) Top 20 – despite some tough competition.
The top five titles of the MMF chart match the quintet at the summit of the TCM as Rachel Reid took two of those slots with the second and third in her Game Changers series. Heated Rivalry (Carina Press) is the second in the eight-strong series and lends its name to the TV adaptation of Reid’s queer ice hockey romance saga, making it the most popular of the six now available with 14,289 copies – a 267.1% rise in sales from the previous seven days.
The Long Game, the sixth book in the series, has scored fourth in the TCM with 7,843 copies sold, while the first title, Game Changer, settles for 14th position follow on 5,351 units.
Julian Barnes’ Departure(s) is the bestselling non-paperback title of the week, debuting in sixth place in the TCM and at the top of the Original Fiction Top 20 with
6,649 copies; Barnes’ title sits just six units ahead of a mass-market paperback of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet (Tinder Press) in the full TCM.
The 80-year-old former Booker winner’s 15th – and he claims final – novel has sold 177.3% more than Elizabeth Finch managed in its first week back in April 2022. In fact, it is the second biggest debut week in hardback for Barnes, only losing out to 2016’s The Noise of Time which sold 7,620 copies during its launch period and went on to sell a little more than 42,000 units in the format in its lifetime.
The only Children’s title inside the Top 10 – and therefore sitting comfortably at the Top of the Children’s Top 20 – is Cozy Corner from colouring collective Coco Wyo (Penguin). First published in March of last year, it has sold 6,316 copies this week – a jump of 57.7% week-on-week.
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Review of the Year: Publishers – Fortunes remained mixed in 2025 with publishers stuck in the middle
It has been a bit of a tough start to the year for Non-Fiction – it has just seven entries in the Top 50 across all formats, and only one of them is a 2026 publication.
Owen Kane’s Addicted to Anixiety has sold 3,107 copies in the current charts, tumbling 16.4% compared with the previous week, but maintaining second place in the Paperback Non-Fiction Top 20, behind James Clear’s 2018 bestseller Atomic Habits which keeps the number one slot for a third consecutive week.
Nearly a quarter of customers have forgotten Always Remember by Charlie Mackesy this week (Ebury Press) (comparing its sales against the previous period).
Despite that, its 4,019 copies is enough to cause it to climb three places to the top of the Hardback Non-Fiction, displacing Joe Wicks’ Protein in 15 (LEAP) which this week has slimmed down by 51.7%.
The biggest new release in Non-Fiction is Miracle by Michael Calvin and Naftali Schiff (Bantam) – the story of a group of boys who escaped the Holocaust at the very last moment – which sold 2,439 copies in its debut week, enough to put it at seventh place in the HBNF Top 20, but 211 copies short of making it into the Official Top 50.
Overall volume sales this week have slipped to 3 million books a contraction of 2.4% – with value dropping slightly more, down 3.6% amount to £28.9m. At first glance, volume sales are down compared to the same week last year – a fall of 4.4%, with value sales dropping 3.8%. However, with Onyx Storm’s launch week stripped out of 2025’s numbers, things look a little healthier: volume is up 0.5%, with value rising 4.3%.
