Cole-blooded: Betrayal steals away with the number one spot

Martina Cole’s Betrayal (Headline) has swiped the UK Official Top 50 number one spot from Ian Rankin's Rather Be the Devil (Orion), selling 19,635 copies for £71,299. This is the author’s 10th week as overall number one, and her first since May 2014. It is also her 15th Mass Market Fiction number one—though her paperback record pales in comparison to her hardback one: she has racked up 62 weeks as Original Fiction queen.

The Original Fiction chart went all 2015 with a YouTuber number one. Louise Pentland’s debut novel Wilde Like Me (Zaffre) sold 7,192 copies to take the Original Fiction top spot in its first week. Pentland has previously gone to the top of the Hardback Non-Fiction chart with her memoir Life with a Sprinkle of Glitter (Simon & Schuster) in July 2015—one of six YouTubers to do so (counting Dan & Phil as a single entity). However, Pentland is only the third vlogger to hit the Original Fiction number one spot, following in the footsteps of Joe Sugg and Carrie Hope Fletcher.

The Hardback Non-Fiction top 20 saw an unseasonal flurry of activity. Though Joe Wicks’ Cooking for Family and Friends (Bluebird) maintained its number one for a fifth consecutive week, former Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby was a close second, selling 5,967 copies of Brand New Me (Headline), and several other celebrity autobiographies were also boosted—Eddie Izzard’s Believe Me (Michael Joseph) and Judy Murray’s Knowing the Score (Chatto & Windus) both returned to the top 10, and Izzy Judd’s Dare to Dream (Bantam) and John McEnroe’s But Seriously (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) entered the chart. Just like strawberries and waterproof caguoles, tennis books are about to have their bestselling two weeks of the year.

The Bookseller’s Cathy Rentzenbrink’s A Manual for Heartache (Picador), the follow-up to The Last Act of Love—the second-bestselling Autobiography: General title of 2016—has zoomed straight into the Hardback Non-Fiction chart, after just five days on sale.

Also, an up-and-coming young photographer has broken through—Brooklyn Beckham’s What I See (Penguin) charted in eighth place, with 1,719 copies sold.

The 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Bloomsbury) saw what can only be described as a J K Rowling takeover of the Children’s chart, with the special edition Hogwarts house covers flying off the shelves faster than a Firebolt. Hufflepuffs may want to skim over the rest of this paragraph; while the Children’s and YA Fiction top 20 featured six separate editions of Rowling’s debut, along with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, bookbuyers plumped solidly for every other house. The hardback and paperback editions of the Gryffindor cover led the pack, even beating the 2014-published non-denominational edition. The Slytherin paperback was 15th, followed by the Ravenclaw hardback and paperback in 18th and 19th.

In the Children’s Non Fiction top 20, Cat Clarke’s Girlhood (Quercus), part of the re-launched Zoella Book Club with W H Smith, hit seventh place. While the book club now includes recommendations from the vlogger’s author friends, her own pick, Jennifer Mathieu’s Moxie (Hodder), was by far the frontrunner, shifting 1,160 copies.

The Pokemon Deluxe Essential Handbook (Scholastic) was the Children’s Non-Fiction number one, still benefitting from the aftershocks of the last summer’s Pokemon Go craze. But could publishers be cashing in on a new trend? Cara Stevens’ Fidget Spinners: Hacks and Mods (Orchard) and Awesome Fidget Spinner Skills (Weldon Owen) both entered the top 20.

After a sluggish few weeks, the print market jumped 16.5% in volume and 16% in value week on week. Year on year, value leapt 3.5% to £25.93m—its highest point since the week ahead of Mother's Day.