Richard Osman becomes first debut author to land Christmas No 1 | Books

Richard Osman’s cosy mystery about a group of elderly sleuths, The Thursday Murder Club, has become the first debut novel ever to become the Christmas No 1, selling a remarkable 134,514 copies in seven days.

The Pointless presenter’s novel beat Barack Obama’s memoir A Promised Land to the Christmas top spot, the sales monitor Nielsen BookScan said on Tuesday. Osman’s novel has flown off shelves since its publication in September and sold more than twice the number of copies of Obama’s memoirs over the past week.

A Promised Land sold 66,531 copies in the week to 19 December, not enough for the former US president to match his wife Michelle Obama’s feat two years ago, when she took the UK’s Christmas crown. The last adult novel to be Christmas No 1 was Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol in 2009.

Osman also beat David Walliams, who has been the No 1 author for three of the last four Christmases. His latest children’s novel, Code Name Bananas, which is set during the second world war, came in third having sold 55,129 copies, while Pinch of Nom food bloggers Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone’s third cookbook, Quick and Easy, came in fourth.

The top 10 was filled out with titles including Douglas Stuart’s Booker winner Shuggie Bain, JK Rowling’s The Ickabog, and Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.

“Congratulations to Richard Osman on scoring the Christmas No 1 crown,” said Hazel Kenyon, Nielsen Book Research director. “I very much look forward to seeing him now appear as an answer on Pointless to a question on Christmas No 1 bestsellers.”

The news comes as bookshops in tier 4 areas were forced to close just days before Christmas. Last year, £270m was spent on physical books in the four-week period to 28 December, said Nielsen – a rate of £400,000 every hour. Last week, £90m was spent on 9.6m printed books – an increase of 1.4%year on year in value.

The Bookseller magazine said that the final week of Christmas trading is typically worth between £60-90m in sales and this year it could have reached £100m had shops not been forced to close.

A spokesperson for Waterstones said the closure was “very disappointing” and had “a significant impact on trade” across the chain.

Sam Fisher at Burley Fisher Books in London, said they were currently selling roughly half of what they were selling last week, through click and collect. “The fact that we had only two hours’ notice to close was pretty absurd,” he said. “It made it impossible to do any forward planning.”

Fleur Sinclair of Sevenoaks Bookshop in Kent said the closure would likely have a huge financial impact. “It’s pretty harsh seeing how easily people can buy their books from WH Smith at huge discounts just up the road from us, and I’m sure the independent toy and stationery shop in our town feels exactly the same,” she said.

In Brecon, The Hours Cafe and Bookshop also closed on Saturday as part of the Welsh national lockdown but owner Leigh Hendra is still operating a click and collect service as well as delivery. She said bestsellers included “nostalgic and comforting” reads such as Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Tove Jansson’s Tales from Moominvalley and The Winter Book. “I think book sales and reading habits have absolutely told the story of this turbulent year, as people have sought solace, wisdom and escapism in the pages of books,” she said.

UK Top 10 bestsellers, week ending 19 December 2020

1. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 134,514
2. A Promised Land by Barack Obama 66,531
3. Code Name Bananas by David Walliams 55,129
4. Pinch of Nom: Quick & Easy by Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson 52,955
5. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy 52,099
6. Guinness World Records 2021 35,229
7. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart 31,218
8. The Ickabog by JK Rowling 31,159
9. A Del of a Life by David Jason 23,973
10. A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough 23,686