Michelle Obama's Becoming is the Christmas number one

Michelle Obama’s Becoming (Viking) is the UK Christmas number one, holding on to the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week running. The former First Lady’s memoir sold 91,882 copies for £1.36m to become the first ever festive bestseller written by a person of colour, and the first woman to top the Christmas charts since J K Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Bloomsbury) in 2008. Becoming also posted the largest volume for a Christmas number one since Alex Ferguson's My Autobiography (Hodder) five years ago.

Obama's number one came during a stunning week for the print market, which sold 8.1 million books for £73.2m—up 3% in value and 1% in volume against the same week in 2017.

David Walliams' The Ice Monster (HarperCollins) shifted 80,413 copies to take second place, soaring past the half a million copies sold mark and leapfrogging Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt (Picador) for second-bestselling overall title of 2018, runner up only to HarperCollins stablemate Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

Joe Wicks’ Veggie Lean in 15 (Bluebird) was the highest new entry, scoring the personal trainer’s 66th Paperback Non-Fiction number one. The vegetarian trend has been growing throughout the year—both Henry Firth and Ian Theasby’s BOSH! (HarperCollins) and Ella Mills’ Deliciously Ella: The Plant-Based Cookbook (Yellow Kite) became the fastest-selling vegan cookbook of all time (one after another) upon their releases in May and August respectively, but Wicks may be the one to take the trend mainstream for January 2019. Veggie Lean in 15, at 51,316 copies sold in its first week, has beaten both Wicks’ last two (and non-Lean in 15-branded) titles Cooking for Family and Friends and The Fat-Loss Plan for launch-week sales.

Lee Child’s Past Tense (Bantam) was the Original Fiction number one, selling 24,525 copies, with George R R Martin’s Fire and Blood (HarperCollins) and Sally Rooney’s Waterstones Book of the Year Normal People (Faber) in second and third place respectively. Normal People leapt 14% week on week to 16,723 copies sold.

Heather Morris’ debut The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Zaffre) chalked up its 11th Mass Market Fiction number one, with 33,881 copies sold. Anna Burns’ Man Booker Prize winner Milkman (Faber) jumped into its highest position in the category chart to date, hitting third and shifting 15,602 copies. 

While The Ice Monster scored its sixth week in the Children’s top spot, Craig Smith and Katz Cowley’s The Wonky Donkey (Scholastic) stormed the Pre-School number one, surpassing Kes Gray and Jim Field’s Oi Goat in total sales to become the bestselling Picture Book title of the year.