Kate McCann's Madeleine (Bantam Press) was comfortably the bestselling
book at UK booksellers for the second week running, selling 63,909
copies in its first full week on sale.
It brings total sales of the hardback edition of the memoir to 136,455
copies. Only three non-fiction titles have sold more copies in their
first 10 days on sale since records began in 1998: Delia Smith's How to
Cook: Book Two (210,000), David Beckham's My Side (190,000) and, most
recently, Tony Blair's A Journey (150,000).
For a second consecutive week, Martina Cole's The Family (Headline) was
the second most popular purchase at UK booksellers. The mass-market
publication sold 36,087 copies in its first full week in UK bookshops,
helped by a "£2.99 if you spend £10" link-save deal at W H Smith. Its
sale is the third strongest from a mass-market novel in 2011. Only
Marian Keyes' The Brightest Star in the Sky (Penguin) and Kate
Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog (Black Swan) sold more copies in a
single week.
Thanks to a "half price book of the week" spot at W H Smith, Kate
Morton's The Distant Hours (Pan) climbs one place into third position
this week, while Sarah Winman's Richard and Judy Summer Book Club
participant, When God Was a Rabbit (Headline Review), climbs five places
into fourth position.
Patricia Cornwell's Port Mortuary (Sphere) falls two places to fifth
place this week, while Justin Cronin's The Passage (Orion) storms seven
places into sixth thanks to spots in W H Smith's "£2.99 if you buy the
Times" promotion, and Waterstone's till-point "link-save" deal.
Suzannah Dunn's The Confession of Katherine Howard (HarperPress), also a
member of the Richard and Judy Summer Book Club, is this week's highest
new entry in the Official UK Top 50, débuting in 28th place.
In total, £24.6m was spent at UK booksellers in the seven days to 21st
May, down 1.3% week-on-week, but up 3.9% on the same week last year. It
is only the fifth week of 20 thus far in 2011 that physical books sales
were ahead of 2010. |