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Bond is back - again

17.06.08 Philip Stone

Sebastian Faulks has returned to the top of the book charts after a brief hiatus. Devil May Care (Penguin 007) sold 27,842 copies through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market last week to return to top spot, while last week's chart-topper, Martina Cole's Faces (Headline) fell to third.

Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden held on to second position with a 27,825 seven-day sale, just 17 copies behind Faulks' James Bond instalment. All three books suffered a decline in sales week-on-week.

Terry Pratchett's Making Money (Corgi), in fourth position, was this week's highest new entry, having sold 22,855 copies in advance of its official publication date of 16th June.

£30.3m was spent through the market in the seven days to 14th June, down 2% on last year when Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (Black Swan) topped the charts with a 66,088 weekly sale. However, the £30.3m total is a 12-week high for the market, further evidence that Father's Day is an increasingly crucial fixture in the bookselling calendar.

In a close-fought battle for chart supremacy within paperback non-fiction, Richard Hammond's On the Edge (Phoenix) retained top spot with a 22,520 weekly sale, ahead of 15 other titles that all enjoyed sales over the 5,000 mark last week.

Within the children's genre, Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry Robs the Bank (Orion) is the new number one - Henry's first chart-topper since Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend topped the children's chart exactly two years ago.

Retail Bestseller News Home James Bond Sebastian Faulks Philip Stone

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Any sign of the Richard and Judy Summer Reads yet?

17 Jun 08 17:35

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By Philip Stone

There certainly are signs of the R&J titles though none made the overall Top 50 this week.

Linwood Barclay's No Time for Goodbye (Orion) sold 5,261 copies last week while Sadie Jones' The Outcast (Vintage), the first book under discussion next Wednesday, sold 3,848 copies last week and débuts in fourth position in our Heatseekers chart this week.

Julia Gregson's East of the Sun was the only other title on the shortlist to sell over 1,000 copies through the market during the seven days to 13th June.

Interestingly however, James McGee's Resurrectionist saw it sales increase by 15.2% week-on-week, which leads me to think that there are going to be a number of disappointed people who tune into R&J on 13th August only to discover they've bought the wrong book. James Bradley's The Resurrectionist (187 copies sold last week) is the R&J title!

17 Jun 08 18:19

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