Pinch of Nom whips E L James from the number one spot

Pinch of Nom (Bluebird) has boomeranged back into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, with Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson’s record-breaking slimming cookbook selling 45,198 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market to defeat E L James’ The Mister (Arrow) after just one week. Pinch of Nom, on sale for six weeks, has now sold 555,754 copies in total and earned over £5.6m. 

Perhaps UK bookbuyers were feeling the pinch after a chocolate-covered Easter weekend—not only did Pinch increase in sales week on week, but the highest new entry in the Hardback Non-Fiction top 20 was The Diabetes Weight-Loss Cookbook (Kyle) and Michael Mosley’s The Fast 800 (Short) bounded back into the Top 50. 

While The Mister’s volume dropped by 18,707 copies in its second week in the chart, it held the Mass Market Fiction number one—James’ 40th week. The previous week’s new entries Kate Morton’s The Clockmaker’s Daughter (Macmillan) and Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her (HarperCollins) leapt up into the category chart’s top four. Santa Montefiore’s The Temptation of Gracie (S&S) also rose, hitting sixth in Mass-Market Fiction. 

Antonio Iturbe’s The Librarian of Auschwitz (Ebury) improved 35% in volume week on week to finally leapfrog Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Zaffre), with the two titles charting side-by-side. 

Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me (Jonathan Cape) held the Original Fiction top spot for a second week, though David Baldacci’s Redemption (Macmillan) rose to defeat John Connolly’s A Book of Bones (Hodder & Stoughton) for the runner-up position. 

Antony Beevor’s Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944 (Penguin) was the highest new entry in 23rd place, rising to fifth in the Paperback Non-Fiction chart. Ant Middleton’s First Man In (HarperCollins) leapfrogged The Secret Barrister (Picador) in the category chart number one spot, for its fourth week at the pole in total.

Though most of the Easter-related picture books swiftly dropped out of the Pre-School chart last week, Peppa Pig didn't waste any time, with two summer-themed new entries—Peppa's Muddy Festival and Peppa at the Petting Zoo (both Ladybird)—hitting second and sixth places respectively. 

A one-two punch of Easter Sunday and a mini heatwave meant the print market suffered—it dropped to its lowest volume and value in a year. At 2.7 million books sold for £23m, volume dropped 12.6% week on week, and value 9.7%.