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Walliams scores hat-trick with World’s Worst Teachers
David Walliams’ The World’s Worst Teachers (HarperCollins) has scored the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a third week running, selling 49,020 copies last week to soar past the 200,000-copies-sold mark.
The title, illustrated by Tony Ross, is now the second-bestselling Children’s title of the year—with only Walliams’ February release Fing ahead—and ninth bestselling overall. No Children's title has held the number one spot for longer than two weeks since Walliams' own The Ice Monster in November 2018.
John Grisham’s The Reckoning (Hodder) was the highest new entry, shooting into second place with 19,123 copies sold in three days on sale. It knocked Sophie Kinsella’s I Owe You One (Black Swan) from the Mass Market Fiction top spot for Grisham’s 43rd weekin pole position, for his third year on the trot.
Jason Fox’s Battle Scars (Corgi) barraged straight into the Paperback Non-Fiction number one with 7,729 copies sold in its launch week. It’s the second military memoir to go straight to the category number one this year, after First Man In (HarperCollins) by Fox's fellow 'SAS: Who Dares Wins' host Ant Middleton. Released in hardback ahead of the Christmas gift-buying period, Battle Scars sold 120,994 copies, and recently boomeranged back into the Hardback Non-Fiction top 20 ahead of Father’s Day.
Jo Nesbo’s Knife (Harvill Secker) edged into the Original Fiction number one spot with 7,539 copies sold, defeating Gill Sims' Why Mummy Doesn't Give a ****! (HarperCollins) after a two-week run, with David Nicholls’ Sweet Sorrow (Hodder) entering the chart in the runner-up spot.
Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson’s immovable Pinch of Nom (Bluebird) held the Hardback Non-Fiction number one for a 15th week in total, but Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women (Bloomsbury) was the chart’s highest new entry. The former Books in the Media book of the week sold 6,386 copies in its first three days on sale, to claim second place.
The print market scored its second-highest value (£27.7m) and third-highest volume (3.25 million books sold) of the year to date. Weekly value has risen against the equivalent week in 2018 for 11 weeks running, with weekly volume only falling three times in that period and always by less than 1%. Average selling price has also been above £8.40 since mid-April, with last week's £8.52 a hefty 39p up on the same week last year.
