Books: Bestsellers

John Grisham's domination of the thriller market cannot be in any doubt. The Testament has entered the list at number one (as has the paperback of The Street Lawyer, published in the same week although not recorded in our new fiction list). Bill Bryson is the travel list this week, aided, as ever, by a TV tie-in, while Ted Hughes continues to outsell pop psychology and cookery books. Michael Smith's Station X is the biggest riser in the non-fiction list and a new entry, The Year 1000, examines life in Y1K: wolves and ravening hordes were the millennium bugs of their day.

Compiled by Bookwatch on sales over seven days ending 7 February 1999

Bookwatch Ltd, 1999

ORIGINAL FICTION

TITLE AUTHOR/PUBLISHER PRICE WEEKLY SALES

1 (-) The Testament John Grisham (Century) pounds 16.99 5,986

2 (9) Come Together Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees (Arrow) pounds 5.99 5,670

3 (1) Southern Cross Patricia D Cornwell (Little, Brown) pounds 16.99 1,710

4 (5) Liar Birds Lucy Fitzgerald (Black Swan) pounds 5.99 1,685

5 (3) The Death of Amy Parris T R Bowen (Penguin) pounds 5.99 1,676

6 (7) City Girl Patricia Scanlan (Bantam) pounds 5.99 1,528

7 (2) Powerplays: ruthless.com Tom Clancy (Penguin) pounds 5.99 1,468

8 (4) It Means Mischief Kate Thompson (Bantam) pounds 5.99 1,404

9 (-) Messiah Boris Starling (HarperCollins) pounds 5.99 1,374

10 (6) Tiffany's Secret Diary Kate Lock (BBC) pounds 4.99 864

ORIGINAL NON-FICTION

TITLE AUTHOR/PUBLISHER PRICE WEEKLY SALES

1(1) Birthday Letters Ted Hughes (Faber) pounds 14.99 3,730

2(2) Men Are From Mars... John Gray (Thorsons) pounds 8.99 3,401

3(9) Station X: codebreakers Michael Smith (Channel 4) pounds 14.99 2,704

4(4) Little Book of Feng Shui Lillian Too (Element) pounds 1.99 2,147

5(5) The Little Book of Calm Paul Wilson (Penguin) pounds 1.99 1,809

6(6) Seafood Odyssey Rick Stein (BBC) pounds 18.99 1,784

7(7) Notes From a Big Country Bill Bryson (Doubleday) pounds 16.99 1,684

8(3) Delia's How to Cook Delia Smith (BBC) pounds 16.99 1,294

9(-) The Little Book of Sleep Paul Wilson (Penguin) pounds 1.99 1,212

10(-) The Year 1000 Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger (Little, Brown) pounds 12.99 1,152

TRAVEL

TITLE AUTHOR/PUBLISHER PRICE WEEKLY SALES

1 Notes From a Small Island Bill Bryson (Black Swan) pounds 6.99 6,639

2 Neither Here Nor There Bill Bryson (Black Swan) pounds 6.99 1,726

3 Notes From a Big Country Bill Bryson (Doubleday) pounds 16.99 1,684

4 A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson (Black Swan) pounds 6.99 1,212

5 The Lost Continent Bill Bryson (Black Swan) pounds 6.99 744

6 The Lost Continent Bill Bryson (Abacus) pounds 6.99 496

7 Lost Continent & Neither Here Nor There Bill Bryson (Secker) pounds 9.99 218

8 From the Holy Mountain William Dalrymple (HarperCollins) pounds 8.99 213

9 Round Ireland with a Fridge Tony Hawks (Ebury) pounds 9.99 142

10 The Field of the Star Nicholas Luard (Penguin) pounds 6.99 109