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Three pence in every pound spent on a book last week went towards one of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games novels, helping the American author score six of the top seven positions in this week's Official UK Top 50.
In total, £682,000 was spent on 120,000 copies of the books—up 57% week on week and up 5,920% on the same week last year.
The December 2011-published "Classic" editions of the three books in the trilogy take the top three positions in this week's Official UK Top 50, led by The Hunger Games with sales of 25,504 copies. It scores Collins' UK publisher Scholastic its first ever Official UK Top 50 number one. Book two in the series, Catching Fire, takes second position in the chart with sales of 21,763 copies, while Mockingjay scores third place with a 18,127 sale.
It is the first time since January 2010, when Stephenie Meyer achieved the feat with Eclipse, Twilight and Breaking Dawn (all published by Atom), that three works by the same writer have been the top three bestselling books in the UK in same week.
John Grisham's YA novel Theodore Boone: The Abduction (Hodder) was the bestselling book not penned by Collins last week, selling 17,090 copies for fourth position in the Official UK Top 50. Two more editions of The Hunger Games (the original Jan-09 published mass-market edition and the new film tie-in edition) and another edition of Catching Fire (the original mass-market paperback) take positions five, six and seven in the chart.
Philippa Gregory's The Lady of the Rivers (Simon & Schuster), the third book in her Cousins' War series, was the bestselling adult novel of the week, scoring 11,948 sales. It takes top spot in this week's Top 20 Mass-market Fiction chart ahead of Wilbur Smith's Those in Peril (Pan).
Alexander McCall Smith's 13th Ladies' Detective Agency novel, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection (Little, Brown), was the bestselling hardback novel of the week, selling 4,952 copies in its first week on bookshop shelves. It is the fifth Lady Detectives novel to reach the summit of The Bookseller's Original Fiction chart.
Harlan Coben's new thriller, Stay Close Orion), and Robert Goddard's Fault Line (Bantam) also join the top 10, as does Fern Britton's second novel, Hidden Treasures (HarperCollins). Her first, New Beginnings, sold 20,700 copies in hardback.
Rachel Khoo's The Little Paris Kitchen (Michael Joseph) is the new number one in Hardback Non-fiction, trading places with the Hairy Bikers' Big Book of Baking (Weidenfeld) to claim pole position. Sales of the cookbook totalled 6,207 copies last week. New entries into the Hardback Non-fiction chart include: Ben Macintyre's story of the D-Day spies, Double Cross (Bloomsbury); Susan Cain's analysis of introverts, Quiet and Keith Lowe’s history of post-WWII Europe, Savage Continent (both Viking); businesswoman Karren Brady's memoir, Strong Woman (Collins), and The Streets frontman Mike Skinner's memoir, The Story of the Streets (Bantam).
Jennifer Worth's Call the Midwife (Phoenix) continues its reign in Paperback Non-fiction, topping the bestseller list for a 12th consecutive week. Just one book has enjoyed a longer non-stop reign over the past five years: Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love (Bloomsbury), which spent 14 consecutive weeks at number one between August and November in 2010.
In total, £22.4m was spent at UK booksellers in the seven days to 31st March — up 1.5% (£0.3m) on the previous week, but down 21% (£6m) on a particularly strong comparative week last year when £28.4m was spent in the seven days leading up to Mother's Day.