Eddo-Lodge retains top spot, as sales figures return to bestseller charts

Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Bloomsbury) has notched up a second week as the UK Official Top 50 number one, selling 34,215 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. The 2018-published title first soared 376 places in the last week of May, before returning to third place in the Top 50 and then hitting the overall number one spot a week ago. Now it has reigned for a second week, also scoring its third consecutive Paperback Non-Fiction pole—its volume also represents the highest single week of sales atop the category chart since Pinch of Nom Food Planner's first week on sale over a year ago.

For the first time since the week ending 21st March, when UK lockdown closed bookshops across the nation, Nielsen BookScan was able to release sales figures. It seemed the book-buying public did indeed #choosebookshops last week, as bricks-and-mortar sites reopened across England: in total, 3.85 million books sold for £33.04m, a stunning leap of 30.9% across both volume and value compared to the same week in 2019. Adult Fiction climbed 18% in volume, Trade Non-Fiction 31% and Children’s an eye-watering 44% year on year. Last year, the market didn’t reach this level in either measure until November. For value, it was the best week 25 since 2003—the week Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released—and the best for volume since 2012. And remember, that's without bookshops in Scotland and Wales, which remained closed last week.

Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other (Penguin) soared back into the Mass Market Fiction number one, with 18,893 copies sold—again, higher than any Mass Market Fiction number one's volume to date this year. John Grisham's The Guardians (Hodder) rose to second place, as Ian Rankin's Westwind (Orion) and James Patterson's Criss Cross (Arrow) joined them in the top five.

Charlie Mackesy's The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse (Ebury) sold 19,389 copies to hold firm in the Hardback Non-Fiction number one, as Florence Given's Women Don't Owe You Pretty (Cassell) rose to second place, selling 10,072 units, and John Nichol's Lancaster (S&S) jumping into fourth place, with 7,747 copies sold.

In Paperback Non-Fiction, Akala's Natives (Two Roads) remained solidly in second place with 17,491 copies sold, as Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility (Penguin) rocketed 16 places to fourth and debuted in the Top 50. David Olusoga's Black and British (Pan), Afua Hirsch's Brit(ish) (Vintage) and Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race (Basic) also soared up the top 20.

Fern Britton's Daughters of Cornwall (HarperCollins) held the Original Fiction number one for a second week, with 5,299 copies sold, with Kester Grant's The Court of Miracles (HarperVoyager) the highest new entry in third.

David Walliams and Tony Ross' Slime (HarperCollins) scored a tenth week as the Children's number one, selling 9,050 copies nearly three months from publication.