You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Nigella Lawson is favourite to clinch the number one Christmas book this year, according to odds released by Waterstone's and William Hill.
The domestic goddess' Kitchen (Chatto & Windus) is favourite to snatch the top spot with odds of 4/1, closely followed by Guinness World Records 2011 with odds of 5/1 and Stephen Fry's The Fry Chronicles (Michael Joseph) currently standing at 6/1.
Also in the running are titles from the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, Michael McIntyre, Paul O’Grady and Cheryl Cole. The number one title will be the book which sits at the summit of the official Nielsen Bookscan chart on the same week as Christmas, which will be revealed on 21st December.
Waterstone's spokesman Jon Howells said the result is far from certain. He said: "Nigella and Jamie always do well, and Guinness World Records will be almost certainly be in the top five, but it’s very hard to say who will be in the top slot. Michael McIntyre has the sort of profile Peter Kay did in 2006 when he had the Christmas number one, and Susan Boyle has become a worldwide phenomenon, so they are definitely contenders. But Stephen Fry, Paul O’Grady and Jeremy Clarkson are national treasures of one sort or other, and we expect them to do very well."
Last year was the first time punters were able to bet on the number one Christmas book. In October William Hill offered the shortest odds of 5/2 on Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (Transworld), which did in fact go on to become Christmas number one. Odds for Brown to claim the top spot again this year stand at 16/1.
The bookmakers took over 1,000 bets last year. William Hill public relations executive Rupert Adams said: "We’re expecting a lot more this year - it’s replaced the race for the number one single for punters."