Michelle Obama's record-breaking Becoming helps print market soar

Michelle Obama's Becoming (Viking) has held the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a third week, leaping 26% in volume week on week to shift 116,920 copies for £1.87m in the seven days to the end of 22nd December—the highest-selling Hardback Non-Fiction title since Jamie Oliver's 15-Minute Meals (Michael Joseph) in 2012. The former First Lady's memoir posted the single biggest week for any title since Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Little, Brown) back in 2016. It is also the highest weekly volume ever for a non-fiction title written by a woman—beating Lynne Truss' Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Profile) in December 2003.

With an average selling price of £16.01, Becoming is now the second-most expensive number one since records began, with only fellow Christmas number one Jamie's 30-Minute Meals coming in at just 77p more expensive in December 2010. The fourth-bestselling book of the year to date, Obama's autobiography is now just a whisker away from the half a million copies sold mark.

The print market leapt 20% in volume and 24% in value week on week, soaring to 9.7 million books sold for £90.6m. This was—for the third year in a row—the highest single week in value terms since the week before Christmas 2007, and the first time in 11 years the market has surpassed the £90m market in one week.

As it stands, the print market is 1.6% up on 2018 in value, and a nail-biting 0.02% up volume—just 42,000 books—so next week's figures will go right down to the wire. A fourth consecutive year of value growth is, however, looking like a pretty safe bet..

David Walliams and Tony Ross' The Ice Monster (HarperCollins) held second place with 81,589 copies sold and scoring a seventh consecutive week as the Children's number one. It also surpassed 600,000 copies sold since its release in early November.

Heather Morris' blockbuster debut The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Zaffre) notched up a 12th week as the Mass Market Fiction number one, selling 44,510 copies. Lee Child and his 23rd Jack Reacher title Past Tense (Bantam) scored the Original Fiction number one, its fifth in total, with 29,474 copies sold.

Following the eight-month reign of Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt (Picador) in the Paperback Non-Fiction number one, and a stunning first week of sales from Joe Wicks' Veggie Lean in 15 (Bluebird), the week leading up to Christmas saw a non-Pan Macmillan book take the title. The Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book—following in the footsteps of 2016's The GCHQ Puzzle Book and 2017's Bletchley Park Brainteasers—swiped the paperback top spot, selling 35,491 copies.