Bad Dad steals away with the number one for a fourth week running

David Walliams’ Bad Dad (HarperCollins) has skidded into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a fourth consecutive week, selling 78,127 copies for £443,681. Bad Dad’s volume declined only 2,516 copies week on week, and it is now the bestselling children’s title of the year after four weeks on sale, with Walliams leapfrogging his own The World’s Worst Children 2.

This is Walliams’ 12th week at number one this year—both Blob and The World’s Worst Children 2 took the top spot for four weeks apiece in spring and early summer respectively. At any other time of year, Bad Dad would be looking likely for a fifth week at the top, but E L James’ Darker (Arrow) is hovering on the horizon for next week.

Though the top three stayed the same, Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients (Michael Joseph) leapt 30% in volume week on week to sell 37,542 copies, closing the gap between him and Jeff Kinney’s The Getaway (Puffin)  to 7,543 copies, from 20,000 the week before. Guinness World Records 2018 sold an extra 10,232 units week on week to leapfrog Lee Child’s The Midnight Line for fourth place.

Wilbur Smith and David Churchill’s War Cry (Harper) zipped up the Mass Market Fiction chart to unseat David Baldacci’s The Fix (Pan) from the number one spot. This is only Smith’s third book to take the title, following on from 2002’s Warlock and last year’s Predator.

James Honeybourne and Mark Brownlow’s Blue Planet II (BBC) has been selling strongly, for obvious reasons—and last week it jumped up 75% in volume, selling 19,014 copies and charting in the overall top 10 for the first time.

Sinclair McKay’s Bletchley Park Brainteasers (Headline) swiped the Paperback Non-Fiction number one away from Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens (Vintage), shifting 8,839 copies, following in the footsteps of last year’s The GCHQ Puzzle Book (Michael Joseph), which itself climbed to 12th in the top 20.

Paul Moran’s Where’s the Unicorn (Michael O'Mara) held the Pre-School and Picture Book number one for a third consecutive week, as Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells’ That’s My Unicorn (Usborne) racked up its 21st week in the top 20. Keep Calm and Colour Unicorns (Huck & Pucker) also had an excellent week, climbing five places in the Paperback Non-Fiction chart and increasing 92% in volume. Aren’t unicorns meant to be rare?

Elsewhere in the Pre-School chart, the Christmas lights were well and truly up, with Watt & Wells’ That’s Not My Reindeer (Usborne), Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty’s Ten Little Elves (Orchard), Ian Whybrow and Axel Scheffler’s The Christmas Bear (Macmillan Children's), Janet & Allan Ahlberg's The Jolly Christmas Postman (Puffin) and Rod Campbell’s Dear Santa (Macmillan Children's) all twinkling away. A newer Christmas tradition—the release of a new Star Wars film—also made its presence felt, with Where’s the Wookiee 1 and 2 (Egmont) charting seventh and fifth respectively.

It's that time of year when all the print market's numbers dramatically shoot upwards—volume was up 19.6% and value 17.6% week on week, at 5.2 million books sold for £43.7m. However, the festive gift-buying hasn't yet risen to 2016's levels, with last week posting a 7.4% drop in volume and a 4.1% decline in value against the same week in 2016.