Tony Ross has yet again topped The Bookseller’s chart of the bestselling children’s illustrators, with his books earning almost twice the total of his closest rival, Axel Scheffler, in 2018.

Ross, whose official sales figures are bolstered by working with David Walliams, achieved value sales of £16.6m last year and volume sales of 2,823,928 units. He has 20 fewer titles in the list than Scheffler, but the Hamburg-born illustrator posted lower value and volume sales, of £8.4m and 1,879,239 units respectively.

Ross’ bestselling book of last year was The Ice Monster, the chart-topping middle...