Kinney leapfrogs Walliams in World Book Day bonanza

Jeff Kinney’s £1 World Book Day title Diary of Greg Heffley’s Best Friend (Puffin) has swiped the UK Official Top 50 number one spot from David Walliams’ Fing (HarperCollins), shifting 72,782 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. At 72,782 copies, this is the second-highest volume for a World Book Day number one since 2006, when 81,281 copies of Daisy Meadows’ Hannah the Happy Ever After Fairy (Orchard) were picked by readers—in the last 13 years, only Walliams’ Blob, for the event’s 20th anniversary, has shifted more for the week of World Book Day. 

This was also Kinney’s 12th week in the overall number one spot in total and, after a three-year dry spell, his second in the last six months, after the 13th Diary of a Wimpy Kid title The Meltdown went straight to number one last autumn. 

The rest of the World Book Day 2019 tranche followed Kinney’s example, with all 12 titles charting inside the overall top 20. Beth Davies and Helen Murray’s Lego Minifigure Mayhem (DK Children's) hit second place to force Fing into third, with Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty’s Ten Little Bookworms (Orchard), Sibeal Pounder’s Bad Mermaids Meet the Witches (Bloomsbury Children's) and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo (Puffin) joining them in the top 10. Combined, the 12 2019 titles sold 443, 565 copies in total, a whopping 77% up on last year’s (Beast from the East-hampered) total volume. 

Adult fiction also performed strongly, with the latest International Women’s Day-inspired Richard and Judy Book Club thundering into the chart. Though Jojo Moyes’ Still Me (Penguin) held the Mass Market Fiction number one for a fifth week, Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers (Penguin) was the highest non-WBD entry in the Top 50, and Kate Mosse’ The Burning Chambers (Pan), Heidi Perks’ Now You See Her (Arrow) and Christina Dalcher’s VOX (HQ) all debuted in the Mass Market Fiction top 20. Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month, Samantha Harvey’s The Western Wind (Vintage), also hit the chart in 13th place.

Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf (Hamish Hamilton) was usurped at the top of the Original Fiction chart by James Patterson’s 18th Abduction (Century), the author’s 63rd week in the top spot. J-Pattz headed a chart topped by seven new entries, including Fern Britton’s The Newcomer (HarperCollins), Rosie Goodwin’s A Maiden’s Voyage (Zaffre) and Books in the Media book of the week Max Porter’s Lanny (Faber). 

Mary Berry’s Quick Cooking (BBC) faced off a challenge from Matt Parker’s Humble Pi (Allen Lane) for the Hardback Non-Fiction number one spot, but Adam Kay’s 37-week number one This is Going to Hurt (Picador) was not so lucky in Paperback Non-Fiction—it was leapfrogged by Ant Middleton’s First Man In (HarperCollins). The military memoir, which spent five weeks as the Hardback Non-Fiction number one in summer 2018, sold 13,111 copies to claim the top spot.

The print market rocketed in volume and value week on week, with a stunning 21% leap for volume and a softer 12.7% jump for value. Against the same week in 2018, which, post-Beast from the East, was among the strongest weeks outside of the Christmas period in the last decade, last week held up admirably, falling just 1.5% in volume and 2.6% in value. Impressive, given 2018 posted 15% and 14% respective jumps on the same week in 2017.