Books by Osman, Haig and Child among most popular titles borrowed from UK libraries

The most popular titles and authors borrowed from UK libraries have been revealed with Richard Osman, Matt Haig and Lee Child topping the charts.

According to Public Lending Right (PLR), which compiled and published the list, books by Osman were the most popular in 2021-22, with The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice (both from Viking) coming in at first and second place. His books were followed by The Midnight Library (Canongate) by Haig and The Sentinel (Bantam) by Child at numbers three and four, while Ann Cleeves took numbers five and six on the list with The Darkest Evening and The Long Call (both from Macmillan). At number seven was J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Bloomsbury Children’s Books), followed by another Cleeves title, The Heron’s Cry (Macmillan), in at eight, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (Picador) was in ninth place and Trust Me by T M Logan (Zaffre) in tenth. 

Julia Donaldson topped the list for most-borrowed author overall – rising from third-most borrowed author in 2020-21 – and was also the most borrowed author in the children’s category. She was followed by James Patterson, who topped the list for most borrowed author in the adult category. Daisy Meadows, David Walliams, Lee Child and Jeff Kinney followed in third, fourth, fifth and sixth place for most-borrowed authors overall. Cleeves was seventh, followed by Roald Dahl, David Baldacci and Adam Blade. 

PLR is encouraging book contributors whose works are lent out by public libraries in the UK and Ireland to register for the PLR scheme by 30th June 2023 for inclusion in the 2022/23 calculations.

The full list for 2021-22 can be found here.