Slime scores hat-trick for Walliams in charts top spot

David Walliams' Slime (HarperCollins) has scored a third week running in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, with Nielsen BookScan once again unable to provide volume or value figures. With the UK under lockdown due to the coronavirus crisis, the reduction in the number of retailers remaining open has impacted Nielsen's ability to report market data.

The Tony Ross-illustrated title's third week is Walliams' 59th week in the top spot in total—if Slime can hang on for a fourth week, and secure the comedian-turned-author's 60th week, his total will be within striking distance of Jamie Oliver's 65 number ones. However, J K Rowling (with Robert Galbraith) and Dan Brown are still quite far ahead with the joint-highest number of weekly UK number ones, both on 82.

Lee Child's Blue Moon (Bantam) swiped the Mass Market Fiction number one for a second week, as Liane Moriarty's 2012-published The Hypnotist's Love Story (Penguin) climbed eight places to third in the category chart.

Stephen King's If It Bleeds (Hodder & Stoughton), a collection of four short stories, claimed the Original Fiction number one from Giovanna and Tom Fletcher's The Eve Illusion (Michael Joseph), and was the highest new entry in the Top 50, in sixth place.

Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt (Picador) held the Paperback Non-Fiction number one spot, with Daisy Upton's Five Minute Mum (Penguin) returning to the chart join it in second place. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Future) rose to third place.

Charlie Mackesy's The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse (Ebury) leapfrogged Mrs Hinch: The Little Book of Lists (Michael Joseph) to gallop back into the Hardback Non-Fiction number one, for its 11th week in total.