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Victoria Hislop's One August Night (Headline) has soared into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 20,220 copies. The sequel to The Island (Headline), which spent eight weeks in the top spot across summer 2006, becomes Hislop's first overall number one since 2017 and swipes her 16th week in the top spot altogether.
One August Night also brings to an end Richard Osman's seven-week streak in the Mass Market Fiction number one. The Thursday Murder Club (Penguin) has so far earned 10 number ones in the Mass Market Fiction chart since its publication in May, with only E L James' Freed (Arrow) breaking its duck for one week in early June.
Lisa Jewell's The Night She Disappeared (Century) leapfrogged Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun (Mantle) to dawn into the Original Fiction number one spot, selling 5,044 copies last week. Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun (Faber) leapt 10 places up Original Fiction and improved 50% in volume week on week, the same week it was announced as a longlisted title for the Booker Prize.
Matt Haig's The Comfort Book (Canongate) and Caitlin Moran's More Than a Woman (Ebury) held the Hardback and Paperback Non-Fiction number ones respectively for another week. Catherine Belton's Putin's People (William Collins), the subject of a High Court libel case, boomeranged back into the Paperback Non-Fiction top 20, rocketing 337% in volume week on week.
David Walliams and Tony Ross' Megamonster (HarperCollins) scored a sixth week as the Children's number one, as it fell to third in the Top 50. Tom Fletcher and Greg Abbott's There's a Unicorn in Your Book (Puffin) and Marcus Rashford and Carl Anka's You Are a Champion (Macmillan Children's) once again claimed the Pre-School and Children's Non-Fiction number ones respectively.
The print market continued to look healthy, at 3.6 million books sold for £29.3m. This was a 9.6% jump in volume and a 3.4% rise in value compared to the same week in 2020. Average selling price, at £8.08, was at its lowest for any week (excluding those during lockdown) since before the pandemic began.