Walliams claims number one spot for second week

David Walliams’ Fing (HarperCollins) has claimed the UK Official Top 50 number one for a second week, selling 76,340 copies in its first full week on sale through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. This was impressively consistent on its launch week, improving 0.6% in volume week on week. In comparison, last year’s The World’s Worst Children 3 dropped 40% in its second week in the chart. 

Fing, illustrated by Tony Ross, may have benefited from early World Book Day celebrations, as the 2019 tranche of World Book Day titles thundered into the chart. With a week to go before World Book Day itself on 7th March, Jeff Kinney’s Diary of Greg Heffley’s Best Friend (Puffin) leapt 28 places to swipe second place, with 23,410 copies sold, and eight more WBD titles joined him in the overall top 20. Fing’s average selling price, at £5.83 last week, was significantly lower than The World’s Worst Children 3 in its second week, at £7.17—could all those £1 WBD vouchers be going straight on Fing? 

Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf (Hamish Hamilton) clawed into the Original Fiction number one in a first for the author—his 2015 Booker-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings (Oneworld) was already available in paperback upon the announcement. With an average selling price of £16.86, it is also the most expensive book ever to hit the category top spot—beating previous record-holders and (interestingly) fellow fantasy fiction titles Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology (£16.80) and J R R Tolkein’s The Fall of Gondolin (£16.46). It was a fantasy double at the top of the Original Fiction chart, with Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree (Bloomsbury) peeling into second place. 

Sarah Pinborough’s Cross Her Heart (HarperCollins) was the highest-charting non-WBD new entry in the Top 50, selling 6,581 copies, and hit seventh in the Mass Market Fiction chart. While Jojo Moyes’ Still Me (Penguin) held firm in the category top spot, Ann Cleeves’ Wild Fire (Pan) leapfrogged The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Zaffre) to swipe second, racking up the author’s highest ever single week sale.

Mary Berry’s Quick Cooking (BBC) looks set for a long stay in the Hardback Non-Fiction number one, but David Nott’s War Doctor (Picador) debuted in second place in its first week, shifting 5,441 copies. 

Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt (Picador) stitched up the Paperback Non-Fiction number one for a 37th week, while Yanis Varoufakis’ Talking to My Daughter about the Economy (Vintage)—Waterstones’ Non-Fiction Book of the Month for March—entered the chart in 13th place, just two days into its tenure. 

At 3.3 million books sold, the print market hit its highest volume for the year to date—yet, at £26.15m, recorded its lowest value. No doubt this was the effect of the £1 World Book Day titles flooding the chart. Whatever happened last week, it was always going to perform stunningly against the same week last year, when the Beast from the East shut down high streets across the UK. In sharp contrast, last week's mini-heatwave helped the print market to a 16% boost in value, and a 9.5% jump in volume.