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Sales of children's books soared last week as schools broke for the first holiday of the new academic year.
According to Nielsen BookScan data, a grand total of £30.8m was spent at UK booksellers in the seven days to 3rd November—up 2% (£0.6m) week on week—with sales of children's books through BookScan's top 5,000 chart for the week rocketing 13%. Eighty-five children's titles took more than £10,000 through bookshop tills—up from 70 the previous week and up from 69 in the same week last year.
Annuals, a traditional Christmas stocking filler favourite, enjoyed big sales boosts, jumping 25% week on week, while there were also sharp uplifts in sales of numerous Christmas-themed titles such as Clement C Moore's The Night Before Christmas (Macmillan, up 30%) and Nicholas Allan's Father Christmas Needs a Wee (Red Fox, up 20%).
Festive sales weren't restricted to the children's market, however. Numerous Christmas-themed novels for adult audiences also proved popular last week, with books such as Carole Matthews' With Love at Christmas (Sphere); Fiona Harper's Kiss Me Under the Mistletoe (M&B); and Abby Clements' Meet Me Under the Mistletoe (Quercus) all earning places in Bookseller bestseller lists this week.
In total, 29 Christmas-themed novels took more than £1,000 through bookshop tills last week—18 of which are published by Harlequin, the home of Mills & Boon.
For a second week, Sylvia Day's Reflected in You (Penguin) proved the bestselling printed book in the UK, selling 48,640 copies in the seven days to 3rd November. Jamie Oliver's new cookbook, 15 Minute-Meals (Michael Joseph), enjoyed a 43% sales boost week on week and retains second position in the list with a 43,164 sale, while the latest edition of Guinness World Records (Guinness) sold 24,244 copies, up 14% week on week, and climbs one place into third position in The Official UK Top 50.
New entries into the Top 50 include: Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries II (Fourth Estate), and the Match!, Hello Kitty, Peppa Pig and LEGO annuals.
J K Rowling's The Casual Vacancy (Little, Brown) remains the bestselling hardback adult novel in the UK, and stays atop this week's Original Fiction chart for a sixth consecutive week—the longest unbroken stint at number one in the chart since Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (Bantam Press) spent 11 consecutive weeks at the summit between November 2009 and January 2010.
Her streak is small, however, in comparison to the Hairy Bikers who this week spend a 14th consecutive week atop The Bookseller's Paperback Non-fiction bestseller list with their weight-loss tome, The Hairy Dieters (Weidenfeld). Just two titles have enjoyed a longer unbroken stint atop the Paperback Non-fiction chart over the past 10 years: Jeremy Clarkson’s I Know You Got Soul (Penguin), which spent 15 consecutive weeks at number one in 2006; and Dr Robert Atkins’ New Diet Revolution (Vermilion), which spent a massive 25 consecutive weeks at number one in 2003.