Author becomes first debut novelist to score Christmas number one
(PA)
Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club has become the first debut novel to score a Christmas number one.
The Pointless host’s mystery, about a group of pensioners who set about solving the murder of a property developer in a luxury Kent retirement village, beat Barack Obama to the top the festive chart.
The novel sold 134,514 copies in the week ending December 19, according to sales monitor Nielsen BookScan.
Richard Osman (Matt Crossick/PA)
This was more than twice as many as A Promised Land, the first volume of the former US president’s memoirs of his time in office, which sold 66,531.
Richard Osman becomes first debut author to land Christmas No 1 with murder mystery novel
Some 134,514 copies of The Thursday Murder Club were sold in the week ending December 19
22 December 2020 • 8:36pm
It is the first debut novel to top the Christmas book chart since official sales records began in the late 1990s, and the first adult novel to top the Christmas list since Dan Brown s The Lost Symbol in 2009
Credit: Matt Crossick / PA
Richard Osman s The Thursday Murder Club has become the first debut novel to top the Christmas sales charts after selling more than twice as many copies as Barack Obama.
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.
On Demand Tiny Pretty Things (Netflix, from Mon) In 2015, authors Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton welcomed the publication of Tiny Pretty Things, their collaborative novel about life at an elite ballet school. It was an instant success and has won numerous plaudits since - and now it s been turned into a 10-part TV series. The story follows the fortunes of a group of hugely talented teenagers from a variety of backgrounds, both poor and privileged, who have left their homes and families behind to pursue their dreams of becoming professional dancers. They are enrolled at the Archer School of Ballet, which is aligned with the city s renowned professional company, City Works Ballet. But it soon becomes clear that the institution is hiding a multitude of sins. Lauren Holly, Kylie Jefferson and Brennan Clost star.
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