Walliams scores a hat-trick while 5 Ingredients tops half a million

David Walliams’ Bad Dad (HarperCollins) has screeched into a third week as the UK Official Top 50 number one, selling 80,643 copies for £472,764. The children’s title has now leapfrogged Dan Brown’s Origin (Bantam) in total volume to pole-vault straight into the top five bestselling books of 2017, after just two and a half weeks on sale. With 285,000 copies sold to date, it is a hefty 40,000 copies ahead of last year's The Midnight Gang—which spent seven weeks in the top spot and sold in excess of 600,000 copies in the run up to Christmas Day.

Jeff Kinney’s 12th Wimpy Kid title The Getaway (Puffin) held a strong second place, with 49,093 copies sold.

Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients—Quick & Easy Food (Michael Joseph) crept up one place, back into the top three, increased in volume 6.5% week on week and swept past the half a million copies sold in total mark. A very lucky 13th week on sale—it also secured a 13th week as the Hardback Non-Fiction number one, the longest-running title since the chef’s own 15-Minute Meals in late 2012. In volume terms, 5 Ingredients is now almost level with Oliver’s bestseller, 30-Minute Meals, at the same point in November 2010. 30-Minute Meals shifted in excess of 100,000 copies each week of December that year to become the bestselling cookbook of all time—could 5 Ingredients pull off a similar feat?

Lee Child’s The Midnight Line (Bantam) held the Original Fiction number one for a second week, selling 27,248 copies.

Tom Fletcher pulled a Walliams, with multiple titles charting in the Top 50—The Creakers and The Christmasaurus (Puffin) spent a seventh and third week in the chart respectively, and they were joined by The Christmasaurus: The Musical Edition in 41st place. Giovanna Fletcher also got in on the action, with Some Kind of Wonderful (Michael Joseph) charting 25th, and fourth in the Original Fiction top 20.

With the BBC’s "Blue Planet II" racking up television audiences of 10 million, it’s no surprise the tie-in title has surfed effortlessly up the chart. Last week it jumped seven places to just outside the top 10, increasing in volume by 25% week on week to 10,893 copies sold.

Sinclair McKay’s Bletchley Park Brainteasers (Headline) entered the Top 50 for the first time, staking its claim as this year’s The GCHQ Puzzle Book, which sold over 200,000 copies in the run-up to Christmas 2016.  After its Waterstones Book of the Year shortlist nod, Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo’s Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (Particular) returned to the Top 50, jumping 20% in volume week on week. And W H Smith’s Fiction Book of the Year, Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (HarperCollins), rocketed 55% upwards in volume on the week before.

Paul Moran's Where's the Unicorn (Michael O'Mara) not only held the Pre-School number one for a second week but actually widened the gap between it and picture book behemoths Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (or Scheffaldson)'s Zog and the Flying Doctors (Macmillan Children's). Oliver Jeffers' Here We Are (HarperCollins) was the highest new entry in the pre-school chart, shifting 3,125 copies to claim seventh place.