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Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Harper) held onto the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for the third week on the trot, squeaking by Tom Kerridge's Lose Weight for Good (Absolute Press) and fending off a raft of World Book Day (WBD) releases.
Honeyman's début novel shifted 25,184 units through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market in the week ending 24th February, 2,128 copies better than Kerridge's weight-loss tome. The two books have been in the one and two spots since the ...Oliphant mass market paperback was released five weeks ago. Lose Weight for Good is still by far (some 150,000 units) the bestselling title of the year, shifting just over 282,000 copies in total; impressively its lowest chart position in the eight weeks of 2018 is second place.
WBD—that time of the school year parents both look forward to and dread with equal measure—is, of course, this Thursday (1st March). The chart is sprinkled with eight of the £1 WBD books, a performance which augurs well for 2018 event as just three WBD 2017 titles hit the Top 50 in the seven days prior to last year's event. Yes, one of the 2017 cohort in that pre-WBD week—David Walliams' and Tony Ross' Blob (HarperCollins Children's )—was the overall number one, but on a relatively small take of 18,864 copies. The bestselling WBD book last week, Kes Gray's and Jim Field's Oi Goat! (Hodder Children's), bettered that by shifting 20,224 units, good enough for third place overall and the Children's number one.
The latest in James Patterson's and Maxine Paetro's Women's Murder Club series, 17th Suspect (Century, 4,818 copies) claimed the Original Fiction pole position in its first week on sale. This is an excellent 59th week as Original Fiction kings for J-Patz and his co-writers. Joe Wicks easily cantered home to his ninth straight Paperback Non-Fiction number one. The Fat-Loss Plan (Bluebird) sold 16,087 copies last week, 10,650 units above second-placed A Long Way Home (Harper Element) by Cathy Glass. Wicks has ruled the early part of the last few years, responsible for every Paperback Non-Fiction number one in January and February of 2016, 2017 and 2018.
It was an active week for new releases with eight adult titles joining the eight WBD books in the Top 50 in their first week on sale. Val McDermid's 10th Tony Hill and Carol Jordan novel, Insidious Intent (Sphere), led the way for the adult débutantes, shifting 16,158 units through the tillls and hitting fourth place overall. McDermid's last February mass market release, 2017's Out of Bounds (Sphere), was the UK number one in its first week on sale. But this is more down to the luck of the draw (and the competition) as Insidious Intent's volume sales are actually 21% on Out of Bounds' first-week 13,310 copies.