Crime and thriller titles dominate UK's most-borrowed list

The crime and thriller genre dominated loans from UK public libraries last year according to data released by Public Lending Right (PLR).

Altogether nine of the top 10 most-borrowed titles from 1st July 2014 to 30th June 2015 belong to the crime and thriller genre, with two from Lee Child topping the list - Personal and Never Go Back (both Bantam). James Patterson also scored two on the most-borrowed list, with Invisible and Unlucky 13 coming in at the fifth and sixth most-borrowed slots.

The other crime and thriller titles on the most-borrowed list are Abattoir Blues by Peter Robinson, The Silkworm by J. K Rowling's pseudonym Robert Galbraith (Sphere), Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (W&N), Want You Dead by Peter James (Pan Macmillan) and Be Careful What You Wish For by Jeffrey Archer (Pan Macmillan). The 10th most-borrowed title in the UK last year was Diary of A Wipmy Kid by Jeff Kinney (Puffin). 

In terms of the most-borrowed authors, children's writers Jacqueline Wilson, Daisy Meadows, Adam Blade, Julia Donaldson and Francesca Simon make up five of the top 10 list. Patterson topped the chart as the most-borrowed author in the UK for the ninth year running.

Patterson, Donaldson, Simon and Meadows also each clocked up over one million loans during 2014-15, according to the British Library, which administers PLR.

Children’s writer David Walliams is “on the up” in terms of loans and was the 41st most borrowed author, up from 157th in 2012-13. The British Library said his book Awful Auntie (HarperCollins Children’s) was the most borrowed title in libraries in Northern Ireland.

Walliams said: “What fantastic taste the children of Northern Ireland have. I am beyond delighted. Libraries are vital for children and adults to discover a wide variety of books. Long may they live!”

PLR was established by Act of Parliament in 1979 and gives authors the legal right to receive payment from the government each time their books are loaned through the public library system.

For the first time, this year’s PLR payments included loans of audio-books. Children’s titles made up half of the top 10 most borrowed audiobooks in 2014-15 with J. K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (both Bloomsbury, narrated by Stephen Fry) coming in at second and third place respectively. Two separate editions of Walliams’ self-narrated Demon Dentist (HarperCollins) were the fourth and sixth most borrowed audiobooks; Walliam’s Ratburger (HarperCollins) was the 10th. Without a Trace by Lesley Pearse (Penguin) read by Emma Powell, was number one. The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm by Rowling’s Galbraith and narrated by Robert Glenister, came fifth and seventh place respectively.

In February 2016, PLR will make payments totaling £6m to 22,347 writers, illustrators, photographers, editors, translators, adaptors, narrators, producers and abridgers. This year’s rate per loan is 7.67 pence, an increase from 6.66p in 2015.