Moyes' The Giver of Stars rockets to number one

Jojo Moyes' The Giver of Stars (Penguin) has soared into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 25,331 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM in its first full week on the shelves. The paperback has unseated David Walliams and Tony Ross' The World's Worst Parents (HarperCollins) after a four-week run at the summit.

This is Moyes' seventh week total in the overall top spot, although curiously her million-copy bestselling blockbuster Me Before You never topped the chart. However, every paperback she's published since, including standalone The One Plus One and Me Before You's sequels After You and Still Me, have hit the top spot.

Karin Slaughter's The Last Widow (HarperCollins), Stephen King's The Institute (Hodder) and Bill Bryson's The Body (Black Swan) also rose up the Top 50 in their first full week on the shelves.

Chris Carter's Written in Blood (S&S) held the Original Fiction number one for a second week running, as Booker-longlisted titles Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light (Fourth Estate) and Kiley Reid's Such a Fun Age (Bloomsbury Circus) returned to the top 10. At 1,861 copies sold, Mantel's Cromwell trilogy finale improved 23% week on week, while Such a Fun Age rocketed an eye-watering 273% to sell 1,668 units and claim seventh place in Original Fiction.

The Waterstones Children's Book Prize announcement last week also saw overall winner Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola's Look Up! (Puffin) hit the Top 50, selling 3,346 copies—a 375% jump against the week before.

Charlie Mackesy's The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse (Ebury) cantered back up into the Hardback Non-Fiction number one spot, while Bryson's The Body held the Paperback Non-Fiction number one for a second week.

The print market has slowed since the great re-opening of bookshops, but not horrifically so. At 3.18 million books sold for £27.2m, it was 4% down in volume and value week on week. Against the same week in 2019, it was 2.3% down in value and 3.6% down in volume.