The Sunday Times Bestseller List is the oldest and most influential book sales chart in the UK, and the one that every author wants to be on. The listings are based on data collected each Saturday for the following Sunday by Nielsen BookScan (which has been collecting digital data since 1998) and the chart is the most accurate and comprehensive estimation of book sales in the country.
• Twenty-two years after the last book in Jacqueline Wilson’s Girls series was published, she has written a follow-up — and now the girls are all grown up. So are the original readers, who came out in their droves to buy 16,000 copies of Think Again.
• But not even nostalgia could beat the Richard Osman powerhouse. The presenter’s fifth cosy crime novel, We Solve Murders, swept away all competition, with first-week sales reaching six figures.
General hardbacks
1 Want by Gillian Anderson et al (Bloomsbury £18.99)
A collection of anonymous sexual fantasies of women around the world (9,335)
Read our review of Want
2 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (Viking £25)
The story of the Iranian embassy siege in 1980 when gunmen took 26 hostages (7,385)
Read our review of The Siege
3 Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari (Fern £28)
Exploring the past, present and possible futures of information networks (5,660)
Read our review of Nexus
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4 The Golden Road by William Dalrymple (Bloomsbury £30)
On India as the intellectual and philosophical superpower that changed the world (3,435)
Read our review of The Golden Road
5 Arnhem: Black Tuesday by Al Murray (Bantam £25)
The daring but doomed attempt to capture a vital bridgehead in 1944 (3,425)
Read our review of Arnhem
6 Henry V by Dan Jones (Apollo £25)
The rise of the warrior king, considered one of England’s greatest monarchs (3,355)
Read our review of Henry V
7 Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (Bodley Head £18.99)
Daily wisdom, solace and inspiration to prompt a saner, freer way of living (2,855)
Read our review of Meditations for Mortals
8 Why Am I Like This? by Gemma Styles (Bantam £20)
Mental health insights from the Instagram star and Good Influence podcaster (2,755)
Read our interview with Gemma Styles
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9 Just Good Manners by William Hanson (Century £20)
The etiquette expert gives guidance on how Brits should behave in every situation (2,470)
Read our interview with William Hanson
10 Growing Brave by Donna Ashworth (Black & White £14.99)
Words to help to find courage in times of fear and doubt (2,380)
General paperbacks
1 Helpless by Cathy Glass (HarperCollins £8.99)
The foster carer Glass takes in three young children who were not safe at home (3,955)
2 Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart (Vintage £10.99)
The challenges and absurdities of political life are revealed by the former MP (3,375)
Read our review of Politics on the Edge
3 Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken (Penguin £10.99)
Investigating the science and economics of highly processed food (2,830)
Read our review of Ultra-Processed People
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4 Atomic Habits by James Clear (Random House Business £17.99)
The minuscule changes that can result in life-altering outcomes (2,710)
5 Interesting Facts for Curious Minds by Jordan Moore (Red Panda £14.49)
Facts about history, politics, popular culture and everything in between (2,630)
6 Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson (Vermilion £10.99)
How understanding personality types can improve human interaction (2,180)
7 Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz (Random House Business £10.99)
A former FBI hostage negotiator’s tools for talking anyone into or out of anything (2,115)
8 Unruly by David Mitchell (Penguin £10.99)
Tales of England’s monarchs from the Cambridge history alumnus (1,985)
Read our interview with David Mitchell
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9 How They Broke Britain by James O’Brien (WH Allen £10.99)
The radio presenter and podcaster on the downfall of Britain and who is to blame (1,885)
10 Diddly Squat: Pigs Might Fly by Jeremy Clarkson (Penguin £10.99)
More tales from Clarkson’s Cotswolds farm (1,875)
Jeremy Clarkson’s favourite books of all time
Fiction hardbacks
1 We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (Viking £22)
A private security officer calls her retired father-in-law for help when framed for murder (102,525)
Read our review of We Solve Murders
2 Think Again by Jacqueline Wilson (Bantam £22)
What happened to Ellie, Magda and Nadine, the stars of Wilson’s Girls series (16,335)
Read our interview with Jacqueline Wilson
3 The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer (Simon & Schuster £22)
Gary Thorn is tempted to help his girlfriend to open a hotel in Brighton (9,125)
Read our review of The Hotel Avocado
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4 Frankie by Graham Norton (Coronet £20)
An elderly woman narrates her life to a young carer she develops a friendship with (7,015)
Read our review of Frankie
5 What a Way to Go by Bella Mackie (Borough £20)
The patriarch in a dysfunctional family tries to solve his murder from the afterlife (6,480)
Read our interview with Bella Mackie
6 Precipice by Robert Harris (Hutchinson Heinemann £22)
On the cusp of war, the prime minister Herbert Asquith has an affair with a socialite (6,445)
Read our review of Precipice
7 The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart (Orbit £22)
In a world ravaged by ancient magic, a young woman searches for her sister (5,885)
8 The Hidden Girl by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker (Macmillan £22)
A successful model is haunted by a fatal, forgotten prophecy from her past (4,285)
9 Safe Enough by Lee Child (Bantam £22)
Twenty short stories from the creator of the bestselling Jack Reacher series (3,925)
Read our review of Safe Enough
10 The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Canongate £20)
A retired maths teacher is bequeathed a run-down house by a long-lost friend (3,775)
Read our review of The Life Impossible
Fiction paperbacks
1 It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover (Simon & Schuster £9.99)
A first love’s reappearance threatens a woman’s relationship (15,775)
Read our profile of Colleen Hoover
2 It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover (Simon & Schuster £9.99)
The sequel to It Ends with Us, revealing Atlas’s side of the story (10,575)
3 The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas (Penguin £9.99)
A death occurs after two sisters leading very different lives decide to swap places (10,260)
Read our review of The Wrong Sister
4 Daydream by Hannah Grace (Simon & Schuster £9.99)
Two students team up to tackle their respective challenges at university (8,585)
5 Holly by Stephen King (Hodder £9.99)
Married professors harbour an unholy secret in the basement of their home (7,770)
Read our review of Holly
6 A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (Bloomsbury £8.99)
A terrifying creature demands retribution after a huntress kills a wolf (7,245)
7 Wild Eyes by Elsie Silver (Piatkus £9.99)
A chart-topping country singer escapes to a rugged mountain town for peace (6,915)
8 The Housemaid by Freida McFadden (Little, Brown £9.99)
Hired as a live-in maid, an ex-con finds her employers difficult to work for (6,910)
9 The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini (Penguin £8.99)
A woman falls to her death from the 25th-floor roof terrace of a London bank (6,505)
Read our review of The Woman on the Ledge
10 The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (Penguin £9.99)
The Thursday Murder Club probe the murder of an old friend (6,405)
Read our review of The Last Devil to Die
Manuals
1 Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook by Poppy O’Toole (Bloomsbury £20)
Recipe collection (9,485)
2 Ottolenghi Comfort by Yotam Ottolenghi et al (Ebury £30)
The Israeli-born British chef and restaurateur’s spin on comfort cooking (6,625)
3 Guinness World Records 2025 (Guinness £22)
The 70th anniversary edition of the fact book honours iconic record breakers over the decades (3,835)
4 Pinch of Nom Air Fryer by Kay Allinson & Kate Allinson (Bluebird £20)
Easy, calorie-counted recipes to make in the countertop appliance (3,520)
5 Rick Stein’s Food Stories by Rick Stein (BBC £28)
More than 100 recipes inspired by the chef’s travels around the British Isles (2,775)
The lists are prepared by and the data is supplied by (and copyrighted to) Nielsen BookScan, and are taken from the TCM for the week ending 14/09/24. Figures shown are sales for the seven-day period.
To order a copy of any of our bestsellers go to timesbookshop.co.uk/bestsellers
Explore the best books of 2024 with our critics’ top reads so far. Or see the top 100 bestselling books of the past 50 years
