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The Sunday Times names Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time its top-ranked book of last 50 years
Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time (Bantam) notched up over five years on the Sunday Times charts, making it the newspaper’s top-ranked title in the past 50 years.
The late physicist’s classic tome hit the Sunday Times’ list for a record 264 weeks since first appearing in 1988, to lead its top 100 titles since the charts’ launch in 1974, a list unveiled to celebrate its 50th anniversary. A Brief History of Time was also the top-ranked book when the Sunday Times did the same exercise on its 40th anniversary.
Like The Bookseller’s definitive and comprehensive charts, the Sunday Times has, since 1998, used accurate full-market print data provided by Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. In the 25 years prior 1998, no volume figures were used in the Sunday Times’ charts, so it should be underscored its top 100 books list is based on number of appearances in its chart, and are not necessarily the UK’s bestselling titles.
The Sunday Times also has a number of historic blind spots, with charts for children’s, non-fiction and "manuals" (recipe books, and titles like G T Karber’s Murdle) not published weekly for many years. So J K Rowling, by far the bestselling author since accurate records began, only appears once on the Sunday Times Top 100 of the past 50 years with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Bloomsbury) in 23rd place.
Hawking’s seminal work is followed on the Sunday Times list by John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (HarperCollins), then by British cookery expert Delia Smith, who features on the list with three entries, including Delia’s Complete Cookery Course (BBC Books), ranked third. Anglo-American author and travel writer Bill Bryson features more than any other author, with five titles, including Notes from a Small Island (Doubleday) in fourth place.
Frank McCourt is ranked fifth with his memoir Angela’s Ashes (Flamingo), while the sixth-place book—Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Ebury)—brings the list into the 21st century. Mackesy’s illustrated modern classic is followed by another book by Delia Smith and Jung Chang’s Wild Swans (HarperCollins), a history of China told through the stories of three generations of women.
Diet and fitness expert Rosemary Conley CBE has three books in the top 100, including Rosemary Conley’s Complete Hip & Thigh Diet (Arrow) in ninth place, followed by Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens (Harvill Secker). Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series (Atom), has her four vampire romance books in the top 100, while notable fiction writers with multiple entries include Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding, Millennium trilogy author Stieg Larsson, Adrian Mole creator Sue Townsend, thriller novelist Dan Brown and TV presenter and author Richard Osman.
James Clear’s Atomic Habits (Random House Business) was published in 2018 and has already appeared on the bestsellers list 134 times since 2020. Similarly, Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography (Elliot & Thompson) was published in 2016 and has featured on the chart 165 times, while Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt (Picador) was published a year later and has been a bestseller 153 times.
Sunday Times deputy literary editor Laura Hackett said: "We are delighted to celebrate the remarkable achievements of authors who have populated the chart since 1974. This top 100 list not only highlights the enduring popularity of timeless works but also showcases the diverse range of genres that have captivated British readers across generations."
