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Brain Freeze takes the top spot again as World Book Day titles bounce
Tom Fletcher and Shane Devries’s Brain Freeze (Puffin) has eased into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week running, selling 46,028 copies.
With a 21% boost in volume on the week of World Book Day, Brain Freeze is the event’s first ever number one to increase in sales afterwards—though perhaps not surprising, given the icy weather in the first week of March.
In total, the 10 World Book Day 2018 titles shifted a combined 319,162 copies—27% up on their total the week of World Book Day and only 128 copies off sales of 2016’s tranche for the week of the event.
Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (HarperCollins) saw a stunning 40.5% bump in volume the week leading up to Mother’s Day, finishing top of the non-World Book Day titles (ninth overall) with 27,577 copies sold. Mary Berry’s Classic (BBC) vaulted 147% upwards in volume, jumping into 12th place, and Jojo Moyes’ Still Me (Michael Joseph) saw a similar boost, by 110% in volume and 19 places to 22nd. Gill Sims’ Why Mummy Drinks (HarperCollins), formerly a pre-Christmas hit, leapt 186% in volume week on week, alongside boosts for Rosie Goodwin’s A Mother’s Grace (Zaffre), Pam Weaver’s Mother’s Day (Avon) and Maggie Sullivan’s Mother’s Day on Coronation Street (HarperCollins) in the Original Fiction chart.
In Mass Market Fiction, Nadine Dorries’ The Mothers of Lovely Lane (Head of Zeus) entered in 10th place, but Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (HarperCollins)—the adaptation of which was released on DVD last week—was the highest new entry in the category top 20, chugging into second place.
International Women’s Day helped to boost Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo’s Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (Particular) up the Top 50, and the sequel, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2 (Timbuktu Labs), joined it in the chart for the first time, hitting 31st place. Mary Beard’s new title Civilisations (Profile) entered the Hardback Non-Fiction chart in 13th place, while Women & Power (Profile) rose to fifth.
Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends (Faber & Faber), winner of the Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award, hit the Top 50 for the first time, charting 45th.
The print market, after suffering from snow woes a week ago, recovered in spectacular fashion, selling an extra million books week on week. Weekly volume and value, at 4.05 million books sold for £30.2m, both jumped by more than a third, from the lowest figures of the year to the highest to date.
