Blair defies protests with record-breaking first week

Tony Blair's A Journey (Hutchinson) has officially become one of the fastest-selling memoirs since records began. The hotly-anticipated and strictly-embargoed memoir by the former Prime Minister sold 92,060 copies in its first four days on sale, the strongest ever opening-week sale of a memoir since Nielsen BookScan records began in 1998.

Just over £1.2m was spent on the book over the four days, which was heavily discounted by major retailers—its average selling price over the four-day period was just £13.09, 47.6% off its £25 r.r.p. In spending terms, 4p in every £1 spent at UK booksellers last week went towards a copy of the Blair memoir.

Blair's book smashes the previous record set by a political memoir, held by Alastair Campbell's The Blair Years (also Hutchinson), which sold 24,000 copies in its first week in bookshops and has gone on to sell 143,000 copies across all editions to date. In just four days, A Journey has already outsold Peter Mandelson's The Third Man (HarperPress) which has scored 65,000 sales since its release on 15th July.

Its sale will surprise many, not least the Daily Mirror's "betting guru" Derek McGovern who said last week: "You can still get 5-1 [odds with Paddy Power] that it sells fewer than 25,000 in its first week—a great bet. These days there is no market for war books".

However, A Journey's opening-week sale is down around 30,000 copies on the estimated 120,000 copies  Margaret Thatcher's memoirs, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins), sold in its first week on sale, although the Iron Lady's memoirs were released in October 1993, more than four years before Nielsen BookScan's official sales records began.

Although A Journey's sale is the strongest ever opening week sale according to BookScan, arguably the title of the fastest-selling memoir of all time still belongs to David Beckham, whose My Side (HarperCollins), sold 86,100 copies in just two days on release in 2003.