Christmas bookshop bestsellers: the festive season arrives in a flurry of sales as prize-winners dominate

In Bath, every weekday has been “feeling like a Saturday” at Mr B’s Emporium. Bookseller Tom Mooney said that online sales had been “particularly strong” for the shop, and that “people are getting organised early, particularly parents”. A Christmas market brought in a flow of customers throughout the week, and the booksellers have been recommending Kieran Larwood’s adventure book, Jed Greenleaf (Faber), and Atsuhiro Yoshida’s Goodnight Tokyo (Europa Editions), while A Book for Christmas by Selma Lagerlöf (Penguin Classics) has sold particularly well.

The festive season also kicked off in Nottingham on Saturday 30th November, “with takings being two or three times normal”, according to Five Leaves Bookshop manager and owner Ross Bradshaw. While many have been conservative with the number of books they buy, old and new customers have visited the shop to pick out their Christmas gifts, including Orbital, Alan Bennett’s Killing Time (Faber), Susanna Clarke’s The Wood at Midwinter and books by Keegan. “Our customers seem to like small, neat hardbacks,” Bradshaw explained.

Penarth’s Griffin Books’ owner Mel Griffin said that customers were opting for a range of books, with top sellers matching those of other independents. Griffin suggests that the surge in early shopping could be down to customers spacing out their gift-buying over a period of time, rather than purchasing all of their gifts over one weekend. The recent payday likely also bolstered consumer confidence, and Griffin said that the “aggressive marketing” around Black Friday sales might have “backfired”, inspiring customers to look to independent businesses for their Christmas shopping.

However, some indie bookshops have seen a slower start to the season, and booksellers are looking to December for a Christmas boost. “It feels a bit of a strange Christmas—people have been holding back, browsing, and checking our Christmas catalogue,” said Sue Lake of White Rose Books in Yorkshire. “A late Christmas surge” is to be expected in the market town of  Thirsk, since locals will often travel to do the bulk of their Christmas shopping in the nearby cities of York, Sheffield and Leeds. Translated fiction is popular with Lake’s customers, and Hwang Bo-Reum’s Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop (Bloomsbury) has been a bestseller. Customers have also been choosing cosy crime books and natural history titles, with Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare (Canongate Books) and John Lewis-Stempel’s England: A Natural History (Doubleday) standing out.

Angela Harding is also “having a moment”, ahead of the publication of four new titles, and Lake said that Still Waters & Wild Waves (Sphere) had been reinforced in the bookshop by a display of the printmaker’s journals, homeware and tote bags. Other top-selling books have included Poison Garden by L J Ross (Dark Skies Publishing) and pop star Rick Astley’s Never (Macmillan), while in hardback fiction, Tracy Chevalier’s The Glassmaker (The Borough Press) has been particularly popular. “There is a brilliant range of titles out across genres, however no outright winner currently,” Lake said.

‘I do feel that there’s damage to consumer confidence from the budget’ — Hazel Broadfoot, Village Books

Hazel Broadfoot, the former president of the Booksellers Association and the owner of Village Books in Dulwich, south-east London, also said sales were “a bit sluggish at the moment”. She said the bookseller had been busy, but less so than last year. “I do feel that there’s damage to consumer confidence from the budget,” Broadfoot said. This was echoed by Adam Hewson, the owner of The Sheen Bookshop, Kew Bookshop and Hewson Books, Brentford, who said that “there is concern about cost of living”, adding that “the budget didn’t deliver much that was truly positive”. Meanwhile, Sam Taylor, the co-founder of Bristol’s Max Minerva’s, has seen sales dip 10% year-on-year, but said that trade was beginning to pick up. “The only title really running away with sales is the Booker winner,” Taylor explained. “The small size of if makes it less intimidating than some prize-winners, and the fact the hardback has been re-released makes it a great gift option for many people.”

Harvey’s book was also highlighted by Hewson and Broadfoot, who added Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo (Faber) to the list of bestselling titles, while the Village Books owner said that Butter  was among the top sellers as well. “The new Richard Osman is selling, but in numbers nowhere near his previous titles,” she explained. “The books featured in our autumn events programme are also doing well—William Boyd, Robert Harris, Clare Chambers’ Shy Creatures (W&N) and Meera Sodha’s Dinner (Fig Tree).” In non-fiction, Broadfoot highlighted Craig Brown’s A Voyage Around the Queen (Fourth Estate), alongside Nigel Slater’s “gorgeous” A Thousand Feasts (Fourth Estate). “My personal favourite is Raising Hare—we have the indie edition with its fabulous end papers and sprayed edges,” she said. “I think it’s irresistible.”

Despite a “tough” start to the season, Hewson is optimistic about December, and said that indies “can make a difference by hand-selling”. Everett’s novel “is holding its own”, he explained, while the booksellers are recommending Alan Hollinghurst’s Our Evenings (Picador), Elif Shafak’s There Are Rivers in the Sky (Viking), Jonathan Coe’s The Proof of My Innocence (Viking) and Edward Carey’s Edith Holler (Gallic Books). “If in doubt, we love the little Claire Keegan hardbacks,” he added. In biography, Hewson also mentioned A Voyage around the Queen, as well as Al Pacino’s Sonny Boy (Century).

In children’s, independent booksellers said Katie Kirby’s The Completely Chaotic Christmas of Lottie Brooks (Puffin) was particularly popular as a gift option for younger readers. They also echoed Waterstones’ head of books Bea Carvalho’s enthusiasm about Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey: The Great Big Glitch (David Fickling Books). Carvalho also said that, since announcing I am Rebel by Ross Montgomery (Walker Books) as Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year, it had become an “instant bestseller”. This is also true of Butter, which won the equivalent title for fiction. “Early sales for both titles have been extremely strong, suggesting that we can expect one of the most successful years for Book of the Year since its launch in 2012,” she said. “Butter has been a magnificent word-of-mouth hit all year, and it is selling staggeringly well: we expect it to be our Christmas bestseller.”

Orbital has been Waterstones’ “bestselling Booker winner ever,” she said, adding: “Even prior to [its] win, this year had been a commercial triumph for the Booker, and we’re pleased to see the shortlist continue to strike such a positive chord: James in particular should be high on many Christmas reading lists, and continues to see strong sales week on week.” Carvalho also highlighted the Baillie Gifford Prize-winner, Question 7, and Ferdia Lennon’s Waterstones Début Fiction Prize-winning Glorious Exploits (Fig Tree), which saw a boost in sales after appearing on BBC Two’s “Between the Covers”.

“Elsewhere in fiction, Osman’s We Solve Murders, Harris’ Precipice (Penguin), Rooney’s Intermezzo, and Bennett’s novella, Killing Time, have all been going down well across markets, and Laurie Gilmore’s Christmas Tree Farm (One More Chapter) is proving to be irresistible gifting,” she added. In non-fiction, Waterstones customers have been picking up Ben Macintyre’s The Siege (Penguin) and Terry Deary’s A History of Britain in Ten Enemies (Transworld), as well as Hart’s I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You, Ted the Dog’s A Pawtobiography (Ebury) and Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat (Penguin). “We have especially enjoyed seeing Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare sell so well and expect it to be one of the highlights of this year’s non-fiction gifting,” Carvalho said.