Brown claims the crown for a sixth week with Origin

Dan Brown’s Origin (Bantam) has once again topped the UK Official Top 50, selling 17,798 copies for a sixth week at number one. The paperback of the fifth Robert Langdon title has now outlasted both its predecessors in the format—both The Lost Symbol and Inferno totted up five weeks apiece in the top spot.

However, Origin was just 253 copies ahead of second-placed Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (Harper)—and last week’s volume was the lowest haul for any number one title this year, and the first below 19,000 copies sold since February 2017.

Having said that, Origin did swipe Brown’s 85th week as the Mass Market Fiction number one—with publisher Transworld edging closer to the 250-week mark, at 242 weeks atop the category chart.

Jamie Oliver may be in Jamaica’s bad books right now, but he’s doing something right when it comes to Italy—Jamie Cooks Italy (Michael Joseph) jumped 44% in volume on its launch week to claim the chef’s 160th week atop the Hardback Non-Fiction chart. His million-copy-bestseller 5 Ingredients also bounced back into the Top 50, increasing nearly 10% in volume week on week.

The Sun newspaper’s ode to the England football team, England’s Heroes: A Tribute to Our Young Lions (HarperCollins), debuted in Hardback Non-Fiction in ninth place, while the latest White House expose to be threatened with legal action by President Donald Trump, Omarosa Manigault Newman’s Unhinged (Simon & Schuster), charted 11th.

Gill Sims topped the Original Fiction chart for a sixth straight week with Why Mummy Swears (HarperCollins). If it can hang on for a seventh week, Why Mummy Swears will achieve the longest consecutive run atop the chart since The Girl on the Train’s spring 2015 10-week run. Graphic novel The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins (St Martin's Press), based on a Dungeons & Dragons podcast, was the highest new entry in Original Fiction, in fifth place.

Emma Carroll’s Secrets of a Sun King (Faber & Faber), Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month, made its debut in the Top 50, joining fellow August picks Anne Tyler’s Ladder of Years (Vintage) and Laura Lippman’s Sunburn (Faber)—but David Walliams and Tony Ross once again held the Children’s number one, with The World’s Worst Children 3 (HarperCollins) notching up a 12th week in the category top spot. 

The print market declined marginally on the week before, dropping 2.5% in volume to 3.2 million books sold, and 1.1% in value for £26.6m. But despite a particularly low-selling top of the chart, last week saw a stunning leap of 7% in value and 4.5% in volume on the same week in 2017. With strong sales from expensive hardback cookbooks Jamie Cooks Italy and Nadiya's Family Favourites, average selling price was up 19p year on year.