Record sales for 'most wanted' Le Carré
08.07.09 Philip Stone in The Bookseller

In yet another poor week for the market, John le Carré has stolen the headlines from Michael Jackson thanks to a record-breaking weekly sale. By contrast with a dearth of Jackson titles available in shops, there was little charts impact following the pop star's sudden death on 25th June, with only J Randy Taraborrelli's Macmillan-published biography registering an impact.Le Carré's A Most Wanted Man (Hodder) sold 35,829 copies through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market last week, up 9,715 (37.2%) on his previous personal best of 26,114—set by The Constant Gardener back in December 2005. Taraborrelli's Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness (Pan) rose 9,612 places up the charts thanks to a seven-day sale of 1,673 copies. It made it to 193 in the chart.But as the sun came out across the UK, book sales suffered. According to BookScan data, £26.4m was spent at UK book retailers last week, up 0.8% week on week, but down a drastic 11.5% on the same week last year, when Richard and Judy Summer Reads Linwood Barclay's No Time for Goodbye (Orion) and Sadie Jones' The Outcast (Vintage) topped the Official UK Top 50 with sales of 53,937 and 33,844 respectively.This week's highest new entry belongs to Stephenie Meyer. The mass-market edition of her adult novel, The Host (Sphere), sold 19,605 copies through the TCM, strong enough for sixth position overall. In non-fiction, Antony Beevor's D-Day (Viking) continues to top the hardback bestseller list whilst Christmas hit Dawn French's Dear Fatty (Arrow) tops the paperback list.