Pullman claims first number one with La Belle Sauvage

Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage (Penguin and David Fickling), the first title in the His Dark Materials “equel” The Book of Dust, has crashed into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, according to Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. The title, released on Pullman’s 71st birthday, sold a fitting 71,568 copies for £841,520.

Amazingly, La Belle Sauvage is Pullman’s first ever title to hit the top spot, in the Nielsen BookScan era. Its first-week sales makes it the fastest-selling Children's title since Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Little, Brown) was released in July last year.

The 2011 edition of Northern Lights (Scholastic) got a boost, climbing 400 places week-on-week to enter the top 500—closely followed by the His Dark Materials gift set (Everyman's Library), which leapt nearly 900 places to claim 646th place.

David Fickling, publisher at David Fickling Books and Pullman’s longtime editor, said: ”Sometimes a book is truly magnificent.  Sometimes an author is one of our greatest living storytellers. When this happens readers flock to the book. Of course!   So I can’t say I am surprised at the glorious sales, but I am very very happy at the response so far and  very grateful for everyone in Team Pullman (with a special word for amazing Chris Wormell and the designers of the cover) and honoured and thrilled for little independent DFB to be partnering so happily with Penguin Random House to bring such a treasure to readers all over the land.”

Ruth Knowles, Publisher, Penguin Random House Children’s said the publisher was “thrilled” with the news. “It is also a lovely coincidence that in a week when Philip Pullman celebrated his 71st birthday on publication day he has gone on to sell 71,568 copies,” she added.

Elsewhere in the chart, Peter James’ Need You Dead (Pan) sold 20,534 copies and swiped the Mass Market Fiction number one spot, his first since You Are Dead stormed to five weeks in the category top spot back in 2015. Christmas-themed romance was out in force, with Katie Flynn’s A Christmas Candle (Arrow), Heidi Swain’s Sleigh Rides and Silver Bells at the Christmas Fair (Simon & Schuster) and Jenny Colgan’s Christmas at the Little Beach Street Bakery (Sphere) decking the halls of the Mass Market Fiction top 20.

The overall top 10 was dominated by new Hardback Non-Fiction entries, with Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson’s What Does This Button Do? (HarperCollins) in fifth place, Jenson Button’s Life to the Limit (Blink) in sixth and Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles (Fourth Estate) in seventh. Hillary Clinton’s What Happened (Simon & Schuster) got a bump, jumping 226% in volume week on week to 11,259 copies. Tim Peake’s Ask an Astronaut: My Guide to Life in Space (Century) was another new Christmas-gift hardback entry. In total, the Hardback Non-Fiction top 20 featured nine new titles.

Dan Brown’s Origin (Bantam) slipped to second overall but held its Original Fiction number one for a third week running. The fifth Robert Langdon book rubbed shoulders with Robert Langdon himself—Tom Hanks’ Uncommon Type (William Heinemann) was the highest new entry, in second place.

Man Booker Prize 2017 winner George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo (Bloomsbury) entered the Original Fiction chart twice, with the original hardback selling 2,187 copies to claim 12th place and the Waterstones exclusive edition selling a further 1,558. As the original hardback edition sold 142 copies the week before the Prize’s announcement, it posted a 1,440% boost in volume week on week—though its sales are lower than the average Booker winner’s post-win weekly sales, which generally come in at around 10,000 copies. Like Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries in 2013, Lincoln in the Bardo may be slightly hamstrung by only being available in hardback—most likely its e-book and the star-studded audio download will also see boosts as a result.

Aside from La Belle Sauvage, the seas of the Children’s chart were relatively still and placid, with Rachel Renee Russell’s Dork Diaries: Crush Catastrophe (Simon & Schuster) the only other new entry in Children’s Fiction and YA top 20. Over in the Children’s Non-Fiction chart, A History of Magic and A Journey Through A History of Magic (both Bloomsbury Children's), released by the British Library to complement the Harry Potter: History of Magic exhibition, broke up the Christmas annual monopoly. But The Beano Annual 2018 (D C Thomson) once again held the top spot.

The market was buffeted upwards, rising 5.1% in volume to 3.7 million books sold and 2.3% in value to £33m week on week. Average selling price was at £9.00—the fifth week running it has been above the £9 mark, and a hefty 45p up on the same week in 2016.