Walliams scores 50th number one with The World's Worst Teachers

David Walliams has bagged his 50th week at number one as The World’s Worst Teachers (HarperCollins) schools the charts for a fifth week running, selling 27,184 copies to once again claim the UK Official Top 50 top spot.

With five weeks under its belt, The World’s Worst Teachers, illustrated by Tony Ross, is the longest-running title from the World’s Worst series, beating The World’s Worst Children 2 on four. It has now also outlasted last autumn’s The Ice Monster, which racked up four weeks at the top. It has taken Walliams just under six years to achieve the half-century. 

Two more weeks in the number one and The World’s Worst Teachers will draw level with The Midnight Gang, Walliams’ longest-running top-spot holder with a seven-week run achieved in autumn 2016. But the title dropped 26% in volume week on week—will it have the momentum to hang on through the summer holidays?

Nadiya Hussain’s Time to Eat (Michael Joseph) rocketed upwards 87% in volume week on week, clocking in in sixth place overall, 26 places up on the previous week. It also scored Hussain’s highest ever weekly volume, beating the seven-day peak of 2017’s British Food Adventure by 38% in volume.

After last Thursday became the hottest day ever recorded in the UK, Greta Thunberg’s No One is Too Small to Make a Difference (Penguin) thundered upwards in the Paperback Non-Fiction chart, scorching into third place, as the Extinction Rebellion handbook This is Not a Drill (Penguin) returned to the top 20 for the first time since June.

Jo Nesbo’s Knife (Harvill Secker) spent a third week in the Original Fiction number one, while Shari Lapena’s Someone We Know (Bantam) was the highest new entry, in third place.

Over in Mass-Market Fiction, the top three stayed identical week on week, with John Grisham’s The Reckoning (Hodder), James Patterson’s Target (Arrow) and Sophie Kinsella’s I Owe You One (Black Swan) holding firm. T M Logan’s The Holiday (Zaffre) was the highest-charting Richard and Judy Book Club member, hitting fourth in the category top 20, beating its compatriot Peter James’ Absolute Proof (Macmillan) by 43 copies.

After 12 straight weeks of year-on-year weekly value rises, last week fell 4.4% in value on the same week in 2018, with £26.4m earned—perhaps even air-conditioned bookshops weren't enough to entice the public on to the high street in 38C weather.

Information supplied by and copyright of Nielsen Book (nielsenbook.co.uk)