Relief for Jamie as Red Nose tops chart
03.03.09 Philip Stone writing in The Bookseller

Jamie Oliver returned to familiar territory last week, scoring his 18th UK number one of the last six years. But with Oliver's Comic Relief-inspired Jamie's Red Nose Recipes (Penguin) topping the charts with a weekly sale of just 21,068 copies, it achieves the feat with the weakest sale from a number one in more than five years. The last title to secure an Official UK number one with a lower sale was Lynne Truss' Eats, Shoots & Leaves (Profile), which topped the charts back in January 2004 with a seven-day sale of just 20,870 units.

It tops the chart after a poor week for the book trade. £28.3m was spent through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market during the seven days to 28th February, an 8.3% decline on the previous week. Due to a Mother's Day clash, year-on-year comparisons are even poorer, with revenue through the TCM down 14.1% on the same week last year when Delia Smith and Danielle Steel topped the charts in the week immediately before Mothering Sunday.

Nonetheless, Jamie's latest Comic Relief fundraiser has sold just over 100,000 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM to date. His previous tie-ins, Jamie's Little Book of Big Treats (2007) and Funky Food for Comic Relief (2003) have sold 314,000 and 145,000 copies respectively. Red-nosed tie-ins also on the rise can be found in children's, with Roger Hargreaves' Mr Funny's Red Nose Day (Egmont) and Jacqueline Wilson's Tracy Beaker's Thumping Heart (Corgi) combining for almost 10,000 copies last week.

Also evident within the genre are the latest World Book Day tie-ins, with Laura Owen and Matt and Dave's Winnie to the Rescue/Yuck's Rotten Joke Ha! Ha! Ha! flip-book the bestseller with a sale of 4,027 units.