Mrs Hinch cleans up at number one with Booker boost for Atwood and Evaristo

Instagram influencer Sophie “Mrs Hinch” Hinchliffe has once again shown a clean pair of heels to the competition, with her second title Mrs Hinch: The Activity Journal (Michael Joseph) sweeping straight into the UK Official Top 50 number one. With 81,651 copies sold, The Activity Journal notches up the author’s third week at number one, after Hinch Yourself Happy spent two weeks atop the chart in April. The original title’s weekly sales plumped up by 135%, re-entering the Top 50 in 46th place, having sold just under 400,000 copies since its spring publication.

Adam Kay’s Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas (Picador) shifted 41,290 copies to claim second place, as the former junior doctor’s debut This is Going to Hurt scored its 48th week as Paperback Non-Fiction number one. Elton John’s Me made it a hardback non-fiction hat trick in the top three, selling 29,741 units in its first three days on sale.

Martina Cole’s No Mercy (Headline) brought Margaret Atwood’s five-week run in the Original Fiction number one to an end—the veteran crime author’s first pole in the chart since 2016 and her 63rd week overall. Peter James also scored his 19th week as Mass Market Fiction number one, as Dead at First Sight (Pan) zipped into the category chart top spot with 20,171 copies sold. Dilly Court’s The Christmas Wedding (HarperCollins) also entered the chart in second place, with 15,423 copies sold in its first week.

The Testaments may have dropped out of the Original Fiction number one, but its joint Booker win last week helped to boost its sales by 1,445 copies week on week, to 13,400 sold. It is of course already one of the most successful winners in the BookScan era, racking up the longest run in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot (with previously Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies the only Booker Prize winner to reach the top, and for one week) and in total print sales has already surpassed recent victors George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo (Bloomsbury), Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings (Oneworld) and Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries (Granta).

Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker-winning Girl, Woman, Other (Hamish Hamilton) received a much more dramatic rise in sales after the announcement, with 5,980 copies sold last week. With 415 units sold the previous week, this was a stunning 1,340% increase for the title, and a rise of 928 places to 33rd place in the Top 50. However, 5,980 copies is on the low side for a Booker winner the week of its win—only Lincoln in the Bardo sold fewer (and went on to become by far the lowest-selling of the BookScan era winners). Last year’s Milkman (Faber) shifted 9,466 copies in the week of its own win, before soaring to a record 18,786 in the first full week of sales following the announcement. Perhaps Girl, Woman, Other will benefit from a similarly delayed boost, as extra print runs are ordered.

But combined, both winners’ extra sales clock in at 7,010 copies the week of the announcement—lower than Milkman, and lower than any other recent single winner aside from Lincoln in the Bardo. This could indicate the shock of the joint win, while garnering attention and publicity, hasn’t necessarily converted into sales.  

Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth (Penguin/David Fickling) held the Children’s number one for a third week, but the kids’ top 20 was awash with annuals—six charted in total, with Minecraft Annual 2020 (Egmont) and Beano Annual 2020 (D C Thomson) hitting the top 10.

The print market's volume rose 4.2% week on week, though value slid by 0.1%. Despite three hardbacks at the top of the chart, both Mrs Hinch: The Activity Journal and Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas posted average selling prices lower than £7, perhaps dragging the average down. However, 2019 continued to punch above 2018, with last week rising 5.9% in value and 5.2% in volume year on year.