It will come as no surprise that the bestselling book in the UK last year was J.K. Rowling's final instalment of the Harry Potter series. What is surprising is the margin of victory: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold an astonishing 4,079,109 copies, according to figures published in The Times newspaper, over 3 million copies ahead of the second most successful book: all the more remarkable considering this was a hardback with an RRP of £17.99!
Elsewhere in the chart, the influence of The Richard and Judy Bookclub was evident, with a number of their choices selling extremely well and Jed Rubenfeld, Kim Edwards and Kate Morton all appearing in the top ten: such is the power of TV. This is further suggested by the presence in the top ten of cookbooks released to tie in with the television series of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver.
And who exactly buys enough copies of The Guinness World Records for it to make the top ten consistently every year? I can only think there were an awful lot of these wrapped up under the Christmas tree; thankfully I was not one of the recipients!
Read more about the Richard and Judy effect in Reading for Pleasure.
Top 10 Bestsellers of 2007