Bestseller Blair enjoys 'stupendous' sales

By Angus Howarth in The Scotsman

Tony Blair's memoirs have broken sales records after a "stupendous" launch day, booksellers have claimed.
The tome, entitled A Journey,, hugely outsold all other books at Waterstone's, becoming the chain's fastest-selling autobiography ever, and shot to the top of Amazon.co.uk's best-seller list.

The former prime minister's account of his time in Downing Street sold more copies on its first day of publication than the autobiographies of celebrities and sports stars, including David Beckham and Russell Brand, Waterstone's said.

Rankings on Amazon's websites show the book has been a success in the United States, where it is the 12th best seller, and Canada, where it is ninth.

But it is proving less popular with readers on the Continent. It is just 366th in Amazon France's best-seller list, while in Germany it is down in 529th place ahead of publication there next week.

Waterstone's, Britain's biggest bookseller, would not provide precise sales figures, but said the book had been a "stupendous" and "unprecedented" success.

A spokesman said: "We've never seen a book like this sell so quickly in one day. It was by some way the biggest-selling book for Waterstone's.