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Charlie Mackesy’s illustrated title The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse (Ebury) has knocked Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson’s Pinch of Nom: Everyday Light (Bluebird) from the UK Official Top 50 number one spot. The Waterstones Book of the Year sold 18,886 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market to claim its first overall top spot, over four months on from publication. Rising 11.5% in volume week on week and scoring its best weekly haul since the first week of January, it also surpassed the half-a-million copies sold mark.
Val McDermid’s How the Dead Speak (Sphere) was the highest new entry in fourth place, with 14,629 copies sold, yet it couldn’t defeat Kate Atkinson’s Big Sky (Black Swan) for the Mass Market Fiction number one spot. The latest Jackson Brodie title, currently Waterstones’ Thriller of the Month, scored a third week running in the category chart top spot.
Katie Fforde’s A Rose Petal Summer (Arrow) and the Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month, Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie (Trapeze), also bounced into the Mass Market Fiction top 10.
Marian Keyes‚Äô Grown Ups (Michael Joseph) soared into the Original Fiction number one spot in its first three days on sale, shifting 7,857 copies. It becomes Keyes‚Äô first top place in the chart since 2008‚Äôs This Charming Man. Elly Griffiths‚Äô The Lantern Man (Quercus) and Stacey Halls‚Äô The Foundling (Bonnier Zaffre) also débuted in the Original Fiction top three.
Jack Fairweather’s Costa winner The Volunteer (W H Allen) held the Paperback Non-Fiction number one, selling 15,912 copies, with Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five (Black Swan) jumping seven places into runner-up.
Though David Walliams and Tony Ross’ The Beast of Buckingham Palace (HarperCollins) racked up a 12th consecutive week as the Children’s bestseller, there were several new entries jostling for space in the kids’ chart. Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month M G Leonard and Sam Sedgman’s The Highland Falcon Thief (Macmillan Children's) fluttered into eighth place, Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper Volume Three (Hodder Children's) beat a path to 10th and Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara’s Little People Big Dreams title David Attenborough (Frances Lincoln Children's) hit 12th.
The print market rose again week on week, with volume up 0.9% to 3.1 million books sold and value jumping 0.3% to £27.4m. However, last week marked the first week of this year to post a decline on the same week in 2019—the release of Jojo Moyes' Still Me (Michael Joseph) in paperback a year ago saw 2020 fall 2.9% in volume and 1.5% in value in comparison.