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Jeffrey Archer has scored his second Top 50 UK number one with the mass-market paperback of Be Careful What You Wish For (Pan).
The novel - the fourth part in the author’s Clifton Chronicles series - sold 21,430 copies in the seven days ending 6th September.
In five weeks, Archer’s title has sold 42,164 copies and is the second instalment to hit the top spot after the series' debut, Only Time Will Tell, reached number one in paperback back in September 2011.
That chart topper has sold 194,486 copies to date (243,121 copies across physical editions). Be Careful… sold 48,509 copies in hardback making it Clifton's second bestselling title in that format. In paperback, none of the books in the series have sold less than 100,000 with the previous novel, Best Kept Secret (also a former Mass Market Fiction chart-topper) selling 114,705 copies in paperback in just over 12 months.
This week’s chart saw two new entries inside the Top 10. Alfie Deyes' The Pointless Book (Blink) is the week's highest new entry at number five and also claims the Non-fiction paperback top spot in the process. The popular You Tube Vlogger's ‘journal’ encourages readers to take up quirky and imaginative life challenges. It sold 15,330 copies last week and further demonstrates the appeal and appetite for quirky activity 'logs' in the wake of Keri Smith's continued success with her Wreck This Journal series (305,549 copies across physical editions to date).
At number eight, Mary Berry scores another hit with Mary Berry Cooks the Perfect for DK. It climbs from five to two on the Non-fiction hardback chart, selling 9,263 copies last week. Berry has three more titles in the Top 20 hardback Fiction chart: Mary Berry Cooks (the author's top-selling title and this year's bestselling cookery title so far), Simple Cakes (both BBC) and Cook Now, Eat Later, reissued in July by Headline. Combined, Berry's sales account for one fifth of the Top 20's total volume last week-13,362 copies. Since "The Great British Bake Off" started in August 2010, Berry has sold over 1.3m books in the UK, worth more than £14m to booksellers.
In the five sales weeks since this year's bake off started (week commencing 3rd August) sales of Berry, Linda Collister, Paul Hollywood and other baking titles have jumped 43% in volume and over 50% in value (over the previous five weeks) registering more than £1m sales based on TCM 5,000 data. Much of the increase has come from new titles published to coincide with the transmission of the series including Linda Collister's tie-in Big Book of Baking (BBC), which has sold 20,034 copies since publication in August.
Jamie Oliver maintained his position at the top of the Non-fiction hardback chart with Jamie's Comfort Food (Michael Joseph) selling 17,840 copies (for a new total of 26,241 copies), up 113% week on week but down 47% on last year's Save With Jamie, which had sold just over 49,000 copies at the same point last year.
In Original Fiction, Lee Child maintained first place with Personal (Bantam Press) selling 19,268 copies. It is the only fiction hardback in 2014 to have at least two weeks at number one with sales above 15,000 copies. Sales were down week on week by 34%.
A desperate situation involving a young boy, with a life threatening illness whose condition and unfortunate circumstances collide with the legal system may seem like a story straight off recent front pages but it is actually a description of the new novel by Ian McEwan. The Children Act (Jonathan Cape) debuts at number two in Original Fiction selling 7,913 copies. First week chart sales are down 9.5% on McEwan's previous novel, Sweet Tooth published in hardback back in August (we 25th) 2012 and topped the Original Fiction chart with 8,745 copies.
David Mitchell's booker longlisted The Bone Clocks (Sceptre) was Original Fiction's other Top 10 new entry this week at number three with 6,597 copies sold.
In paperback Fiction, the Richard and Judy bookclub effect spurred sales of Daughter (Penguin), which climbs from six to number two. Jane Shemilt's thriller sold 15,865 copies last week, up 80% week on week in volume for a new total of 24,906 copies.
Overall, 3.2m book sales registered through Nielsen BookScan last week for a combined value of £25.3m, up 7.9% week on week but down 0.8% on the same week in value terms last year.