Brown bags it: Origin scores author's 77th week at number one

Dan Brown’s Origin (Corgi) has shot straight into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 38,735 copies for £151,251. This is the author’s 77th week in the overall top spot—he’s now just two weeks shy of J K Rowling (and Robert Galbraith)’s record of 79.

Brown is in the unusual position of his books selling significantly more in hardback than they do in paperback—Origin’s hardback sold 100,095 copies in its first week on sale back in autumn 2017—though the paperback’s launch week sales have remained remarkably consistent compared with his last paperback release, Inferno, in 2013. Origin sold just 154 copies fewer than its predecessor, a decline of 0.4%. Origin also claimed Brown’s 80th week as Mass Market Fiction number one, of which 62 were held by The Da Vinci Code (plus a further four for the film tie-in edition). The second Robert Langdon title is still the second-bestselling book of all time, with 4.5 million copies sold since 2004.

The second-highest new entry was Dilly Court’s The Summer Maiden (HarperCollins), which sold 13,724 copies—the author’s second-biggest launch week volume after November 2017’s The Mistletoe Seller. Gill Sims’ Why Mummy Swears (HarperCollins), the follow-up to Why Mummy Drinks, has swiped the author’s first Original Fiction number one, toppling Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Bonnier Zaffre) after just one week. Also clambering into the Original Fiction top 20 last week were Lisa Jewell’s Watching You (Century), in second, and Santa Montefiore’s The Temptation of Gracie (Simon & Schuster) in third. Rachaele Hambleton’s Part-Time Working Mummy (Trapeze) sold just 24 copies fewer than Why Mummy Swears to debut in the Hardback Non-Fiction chart in second, just below Matt Haig’s Notes on a Nervous Planet, which held the number one for a second week.

Jamie Oliver’s Five Ingredients (Michael Joseph), the bestselling book of 2017, has become the celebrity chef’s third title to sell a million copies, nudging over the line last week with 5,309 copies sold. The Nibbies Non-Fiction Book of the Year joined its fellow numerically-titled seven-figure sellers Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals and Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals. Five Ingredients is now, appositely, the fifth-bestselling cookbook of all time. Kes Gray and Jim Field’s Oi Cat! (Hodder Children's) toppled Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s The Ugly Five (Alison Green) atop the Pre-School chart after a three week run in the top spot. This is the author-and-illustrator duo’s second number one of the year so far, after World Book Day title Oi Goat reigned for five weeks in early spring. Additionally, series predecessors Oi Frog! and Oi Dog! also featured in the top 20 last week, making Field the chart’s most ubiquitous illustrator.

The print market has posted a year-on-year drop in both volume and value for every week of the heatwave so far. However, last week's volume of 3.28 million books sold and value of £26.5m were the highest since the week leading up to Father's Day in mid-June—which was around the same time as the start of the World Cup. Perhaps even if the unseasonal (for Britain) weather continues, the lack of football on will still help boost sales.