Non-Fiction: Margolyes reignites celebrity memoir sector

Miriam Margolyes’ This Much is True (John Murray) has sprouted in the Official UK Top 50 number one spot in its first week on sale, shifting 16,800 copies to end Dilly Court’s two-week run in pole position. Margolyes’ memoir becomes the first non-fiction title to hit the number one since The Official Highway Code (TSO) in mid-April, and becomes just the fourth non-fiction chart-topper this year, joining Joe Wicks’ Feel Good Food (HQ) and Kay and Kate Allinson’s Pinch of Nom Comfort Food (Bluebird).

 

Despite This Much is True’s dominance, it was yet another tough week for Trade Non-Fiction, which fell 11.3% in volume and 7.8% in value against the same week in 2021. The memoir is the eighth title this year to top the chart with a weekly volume lower than 20,000 units. In sharp contrast, Adult Fiction continued to thrive, rising 8.5% in volume and 14.4% in value year on year.

 

The Autobiography & Biography category seems to so far have kept its head above water, however, recording a 0.5% bump in volume and 4.2% rise in value across 2022 from mid-March, compared to the available weeks of 2021. A stunning return to form for the hardback celebrity memoir last autumn has been paying dividends into the summer, with Bob Mortimer’s And Away... (S&S) topping Paperback Non-fiction for much of June, ahead of This Much is True taking the category pole last week—and the paperback of Billy Connolly’s Windswept & Interesting is still to come. It should be noted that all three are also big-hitters in audio, with This Much is True thundering to the top of the weekly Audible ranking last week, returning to the chart for the first time since late February.

 

Margolyes topped Paperback Non-fiction by a little under 10,000 copies, knocking Dave Grohl’s The Storyteller (S&S) from the top spot to third. Mortimer’s And Away... held firm in second place, as Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne’s The Devil You Know (Faber & Faber), the current Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month, jumped into fourth place.

 

Dr Julie Smith’s Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? (Michael Joseph) reigned atop Hardback Non-fiction once again, as Dr Hazel Wallace’s The Female Factor (Yellow Kite) débuted in second place and Ixta Belfrage, the co-author of Ottolenghi Flavour, made her solo début with MEZCLA (Ebury), which rustled up sixth place.