Midnight Gang strikes six as Brexit Island looms on the horizon

David Walliams’ The Midnight Gang (HarperCollins) has clocked up its sixth week as the UK Official Top 50 number one, shifting 73,616 copies for £424,532, according to Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. The title’s total volume is now within touching distance of half a million copies, already surpassing the total of Walliams’ last book The World’s Worst Children—which has been on sale for six months—and has flown off the shelves 67% faster than his 2015 hit Grandpa’s Great Escape. It is now the fourth-bestselling book of the year. Surely, the comedian-turned-author has next week's Christmas Number One sewn up.

With six weeks in the top spot under its belt, The Midnight Gang is now level with both the longest-running children’s number one of the year (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) and Walliams’ own personal best, Awful Auntie, which reigned for six weeks two years ago. One more week would not only see Walliams clinch the Christmas Number One but would also make The Midnight Gang the longest-running children’s number one since Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in summer 2003.

However, this is 2016. Let us not forget that an exit poll on the evening of the 23rd June showed a comfortable Remain win, or that at 4am on 9th November pundits were calling the presidency for Hillary Clinton. And the dark horse for Christmas Number One comes in a familiar shape: Five on Brexit Island (Quercus), part of the Famous Five spoof series, which last week soared 47% in volume week on week to shift a sterling 61,767 copies and secure second place. In total, it has now shifted a continental-sized 186,027 copies, nearly 75,000 more than the Ladybird Book for Grown-Ups big-hitter How it Works: The Grandparent (Michael Joseph). Though the gap between The Midnight Gang and Five on Brexit Island is still more than 10,000 copies, ...Brexit Island jumped by 20,000 on last week, whereas Walliams declined 7,000.  And though this is probably inconsequential, the cover of The Midnight Gang is dark blue with stars on it. Hashtag just saying.

Tim Peake’s Hello, is this Planet Earth? (Century) came a very close third, shifting just 1,655 copies fewer than ...Brexit Island. Despite losing its Hardback Non-Fiction number one to the spoof title, it cannot be ruled out of the running for the festive pole. And a stratospheric ascent was made by The GCHQ Puzzle Book (Michael Joseph), which climbed 27 places to sixth and swiped the Paperback Non-Fiction number one from Joe Wicks’ Lean in 15: The Sustain Plan (Bluebird). The puzzle book—which is possibly to the first stocking filler inspired by a civil service department since 2004 hit Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain, 1942 (Bodleian Library), although that was a Washington missive rather than a Whitehall one—would be a surprise Christmas Number One, even by 2016 standards.

Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook (Michael Joseph) and the Private Eye Annual 2016 also made appearances in the top 10 for the first time. Jamie’s second book of the year leapt 67% in volume on the week before, selling 34,133 copies, and the Private Eye Annual jumped a massive 126% week on week, hitting 28,263 units sold. Unsurprisingly, it’s heading for its best ever year.

Lee Child’s Night School (Bantam) held the Original Fiction number one for a fifth week running. It was the only fiction title to hit the top 20, as Christmas-gift non-fiction dominated the chart. However, Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent (Serpent's Tail), recently named Waterstones’ Book of the Year, slithered into the Top 50 for the first time, increasing 54% in volume week on week to hit 31st place.

The print market jumped 22% up in value on the week before, to £64.8m. It is now "just" £100m away from matching 2015's total, with three weeks still to go.