Pinch of Nom becomes fastest-selling non-fiction title recorded

Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson’s slimming cookbook Pinch of Nom (Bluebird), based on the authors’ food blog, has become the fastest-selling non-fiction title of the Nielsen BookScan era, selling a gastronomical 210,506 copies through its Total Consumer Market, beating Alex Ferguson’s My Autobiography (Hodder) in its first week on sale in 2013. 

The slimming cookbook has also dished up the single biggest weekly sale for any non-fiction title in the UK, defeating the record set in the week before Christmas 2006 by Peter Kay’s The Sound of Laughter (Century). Only titles by three authors have shifted more copies in a single week—the BookScan holy trinity of J K Rowling, E L James and Dan Brown. 

With over £2.1m earned since its release last Thursday, Pinch of Nom is instantly the most valuable title of the year to date. Perhaps most shockingly of all, it knocked Mary Berry’s Quick Cooking (BBC) from the Hardback Non-Fiction number one spot—I repeat, Mary Berry has been knocked from the Hardback Non-Fiction number one spot a fortnight before Mother’s Day.

Featherstone and Allinson have now swiped the mantel of fastest-selling debut cookbook from their Bluebird stablemate Joe Wicks. Since the Instagram personal trainer burst onto the scene in early 2016, he’s gone on to sell over 3.1 million books and earn £26.7m through BookScan. Have we now left the Lean in 15 era, to enter the age of Pinch of Nom?

© Mike English

David Walliams and Tony Ross’ Fing (HarperCollins) leapfrogged former number one Jeff Kinney’s Diary of Greg Heffley’s Best Friend (Puffin) to claim second place, roughly 187,000 copies below Pinch of Nom. 

Kate Atkinson’s Transcription (Black Swan) swiped the Mass Market Fiction number one from Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers (Penguin). The literary spy thriller racked up Atkinson’s 13th week in the category number one spot, shifting 16,228 copies.

Each of the main category charts’ top spots changed hands last week, with Jody Revenson’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Movie-Making News (HarperCollins) claiming the Paperback Non-Fiction number one from Ant Middleton’s First Man In (HarperCollins). Akala’s Natives (Two Roads) also hit the Top 50 in its first week on sale, scoring fifth in the Paperback Non-Fiction chart.

Clive and Dirk Cussler's Celtic Empire (Michael Joseph) ousted James Patterson and Maxine Paetro's 18th Abduction (Century) from the top of the Original Fiction chart.

While Walliams and World Book Day still ruled the Children’s charts, Onjali Q Rauf’s Waterstones Children’s Book Prize winner The Boy at the Back of the Class (Orion Children's) hit the overall kids’ top 20 in 16th place, selling 4,098 copies. 

Aided by Pinch of Nom's delectable sales, the market leapt to its second-highest value for the year to date, improving 9.4% on the week before. Volume jumped 3.5%. Against the same week in 2018, value was 11.5% up and volume 6.4%, with average selling price returning to £8-plus with 5.4% increase week on week.