PRH grabs majority of summer Richard & Judy Book Club titles

Lisa Campbell - The Bookseller Penguin Random House has the lion’s share of titles in this summer's W H Smith Richard and Judy Book Club. The trade publishing giant has claimed six out of eight slots on the coveted list, which almost guarantees thousands of sales for each title. While a team from WH Smith's books department, along with Richard and Judy, decides on titles for the promotion, publishers are charged a fee to enter their books for consideration. The six Penguin Random House titles are: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (Corgi, Random House); An Officer and A Spy by Robert Harris (Arrow, Random House); The Lie by Helen Dunmore (Windmill Books, Random House); Eeny Meeny by M J Arlidge (Penguin); Dear Thing by Julie Cohen (Black Swan, Random House); and Mad About You by Sinead Moriarty (Penguin). Bloomsbury takes the other two slots on the list with And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini and Before We Met by Lucie Whitehouse. The promotion has now surpassed 100 recommended titles through its quarterly book club, which launched in September 2010. Michael Neil, W H Smith's books director, said: “It’s testimony to the continued success and trust in Richard and Judy’s recommendations that we’ve now exceeded 100 recommended titles. This latest list of recommendations once again demonstrates the huge range of talented authors that are producing inspiring, intelligent and thought-provoking books.” Richard Madeley said he and his wife "loved” the list, while Judy Finnigan said the selection ranged from “crime thrillers to romances” which were all “utterly enthralling.”