Non-fiction: Mackesy does a double take

Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Ebury) has cantered back to the top of the Official UK Top 50, slinking 21 places up the chart week on week to claim its fourth week in the overall top spot. Hot on its heels was the November 2022-published The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse: The Animated Story, which jumped into second place.

The original edition, published in 2019, spent most of 2020’s lockdowns in the Hardback Non-fiction number one, eventually becoming the year’s bestselling title and selling more than 1.5 million units (outside of lockdowns). With the animated TV adaptation being the BBC’s most-watched show on Christmas Eve, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse was one of the few titles to actually increase in sales post-Christmas, leaping 30% week on week. 

With Christmas officially in the rear-view mirror but the January period of remorse not quite upon us, “New Year, new you” titles were gathering without yet launching a full-on assault on the chart. After a lower launch week than usual, Kay and Kate Allinson’s Pinch of Nom: Enjoy (Bluebird) still seems to be following its standard post-Christmas schedule, bouncing back up the Top 50.

Siobhan Wightman’s Slimming Eats Made Simple (Yellow Kite) was the highest new entry, charting sixth, with Dr Clare Bailey and Kathryn Bruton’s The Fast 800 Keto Recipe Book (Short) close behind in ninth, swiping the Paperback Non-fiction number one. James Clear’s Atomic Habits (Random House), a stalwart in the “New Year, new you” line-up since 2021, bounced back into second place in the category chart. Two different Air-Fryer Cookbooks, one by Jenny Tschiesche (Ryland Peters & Small) and the other by Todd English (Robinson), hit the Hardback and Paperback Non-fiction charts respectively.