Gail force: Honeyman's debut claims number one for second week

Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (HarperCollins) has breezed into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week, selling 27,844 copies for £166,643. After just four weeks on sale, the paperback has topped 100,000 copies sold—the fastest-selling debut in the format in the last ten years, apart from E L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey (Arrow) and Dawn French's A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Penguin). (Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train was the author's first thriller under her own name, but not her first published work.)

Tom Kerridge’s Lose Weight for Good (Absolute) held second but bounced up 28% in volume week on week, after the return of his BBC2 companion show. Joe Wicks also had a resurgence, following the launch of his own Channel 4 show. The Fat-Loss Plan (Bluebird) raced back up the chart sixteen places to fourth overall, leaping 266% in volume. His million-copy-bestseller Lean in 15 returned to the Paperback Non-Fiction top 20, and last year’s Cooking for Family and Friends boomeranged back into the Hardback Non-Fiction chart.

Helen Dunmore’s Costa Book Award-winning Inside the Wave (Bloodaxe) surged in volume, jumping 229% week on week and reclaiming the Small Publishers number one. It even improved 80% on the week of its Costa win and cracked the Top 50 for the first time.

David Walliams was the true winner of half-term, with five titles in the Top 50 and seven in the Children’s top 20. However, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris’ The Lost Words (Hamish Hamilton) found itself in the Pre-School and Picture Book number one, after stunning sales across the Christmas-gift-buying season. The Small Publishers Non-Fiction chart saw a barrage of guides for UK-based tourist attractions, including the Imperial War Museum, the Natural History Museum and HMS Belfast.

Jacqueline Wilson’s Wave Me Goodbye (Puffin) entered the Children’s and YA Fiction chart in 15th, with Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor (Hachette Children's) charting 17th.

The first few buds of Mother’s Day gift-buying peeked through, with Queen Mother Mary Berry returning to the Top 50 with Classic (BBC), in 27th place. The former "Great British Bake Off" judge claimed the number one the week of Mother’s Day 2017 with Mary Berry Everyday.

The print market held steady—value inched up 0.5% to £27m, while volume had a healthier jump of 2.8% to 3.25 million books sold, the second-highest volume posted since the week leading up to Christmas. Weekly value is still yet to decline year on year in 2018, with a 2.7% jump recorded last week.