50 years, by the numbers

How many of these bestsellers have you read?

THE SUNDAY TIMES is celebrating 50 years of its bestsellers chart today. It has marked the occasion with a special edition of its Culture supplement featuring contributions from some of the writers behind the 100 overall bestsellers of the last five decades. It’s definitely worth a trip to the garage to pick up a copy if you haven’t already.

My first thought on hearing of the milestone, though, was surprise that the list hasn’t been around longer. The paper, after all, was founded in the 1820s, and WHSmith has been flogging books in train stations since the Victorian era.

According to an interesting piece by the paper’s chief literary critic, Johanna Thomas-Corr, publishing types were sniffy when the first chart finally appeared in 1974. The whole idea of comparing sales figures was deemed by some to be “antiliterary”.

Well, maybe, but it’s great fun. And popular, too — as the inclusion of Schott’s Original Miscellany in the last 50 years’ Top 100 demonstrates. These days publishers paw over the charts as soon as Nielsen releases them, enthusiastically trumpeting their “instant Sunday Times bestsellers” on Instagram.

And bestselling status begets bestselling status. At Backstory we’ve borrowed the old WHSmith trick of devoting one bookcase to our current bestsellers, which we rearrange each fortnight to reflect the last four weeks’ sales. It’s always the bay that gets the most attention; with books as with much else, people are curious about what everyone else is up to.

The full list is below. There are a few surprises — no Agatha Christie, for instance; no religion, either — which might be explained by the rather unfortunate methodology. Since weekly sales figures weren’t tallied until the late 1990s, the ranking is based on the number of weeks a title appeared in the top 10 lists, not its overall sales. This counts against books that have been steady sellers for decades. But still, it’s a fun canter through the various literary phenomena to have affected (afflicted?) Britain in the last five decades.

What does the list tell us about ourselves? Taken together, the books point towards something like a mania for self-improvement: self-help (remember The Little Book of Calm?) and diet books, obviously (Dukan, three Rosemary Conleys, the not-very-bestselling-sounding Food Combining for Health by the-even-less-bestselling-sounding Doris Grant) but also cookery (three Delias) and gardening.

But it wasn’t just the home or the body that readers were keen to conquer. We wanted complicated ideas about the world explained in just a few hundred pages. The bigger the idea, the bigger the sales. The Chronicle of the 20th Century came in at no 89, pipped by Bill Bryson’s claim to provide a Short History of Nearly Everything (32), still a little way behind Sapiens’s “Brief History of Humankind” (10). But it was the ultimate big subject that claimed the overall top spot: the universe itself. Top of the list, remarkably, is Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.

How many of these books were read, we will never know. What these sales figures stand testament to is all that aspiration.

Not a little dissatisfaction, too. Even the books not obviously about self-improvement (from which we can infer unhappiness with the status quo) often provide the reader with ways to escape a humdrum existence, from the vicarious living of armchair travel (four Bill Bryson travelogues, Peter Mayle in Provence and Michael Palin Around The World…) to misery memoirs, with their comforting implication that things could always be worse.

On a brighter note, any writer capable of making us laugh was on to a good thing. The aforementioned Michael Palin and Bill Bryson, of course, but also Sue Townsend (twice), Helen Fielding (also twice), Bob Mortimer, Adam Kay, Bonnie Garmus and Richard Osman. The Complete Yes Minister is an exception to the rule: in general, straightforward works of comedy didn’t make the cut; gentle, sideways humour did.

So, how many have you read? I’ve only managed 12. How many would you read again? And, most of all, can anyone tell me what Doris Grant’s secrets were, and why everyone was so keen to hear them?

Answers in the comments or by reply, please!

Read on for full list — and exciting news of our US election event.

The Sunday Times bestsellers of the last 50 years

1 A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

2 Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus by John Gray

3 Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course

4 Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

5 Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

6 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

7 Delia Smith’s Summer Collection

8 Wild Swans by Jung Chang

9 Rosemary Conley’s Complete Hip and Thigh Diet

10 Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

11 Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

12 The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden

13 A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

14 This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

15 Delia Smith’s Complete Illustrated Cookery Course

16 Atomic Habits by James Clear

17 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend

18 Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King

19 The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

20 A Child Called It by Dave Petzer

21 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

22 Pinch of Nom by Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone

23 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling

24 The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

25 Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab

26 The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski

27 Longitude by Dava Sobel

28 The Little Book of Calm by Paul Wilson

29 Complete Theory Test for Cars and Motorcycles

30 RHS Gardeners’ Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers

31 Around The World in 80 Days by Michael Palin

32 A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

33 Seasons of My Life by Hannah Hauxwell

34 It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

35 A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen

36 Alastair Cooke’s America

37 The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

38 Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle

39 Stupid White Men by Michael Moore

40 The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

41 Food Combining for Health by Doris Grant

42 Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

43 The Driving Manual

44= Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

44= Wreck this Journal by Keri Smith

46 Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

47 James Herriot’s Yorkshire by James Herriot and Derry Brabbs

48 Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

49 Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith

50 Let Sleeping Vets Lie by James Herriot

51 Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Ekson

52 The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer

53 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

54 Watership Down by Richard Adams

55 An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan

56 Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

57 Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

58 New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

59 Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

60 Captain Correlli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

61 Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton

62 The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson

63 Some Other Rainbows by John McCarthy and Jill Morrell

64 Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

65 The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend

66 Rosemary Conley’s Hip and Thigh Diet

67 The Complete Yes Minister by Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay

68 Writing Home by Alan Bennett

69 Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

70 The World According to Clarkson by Jeremy Clarkson

71 The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans

72 Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

73 The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

74 Pinch of Nom Everyday Light by Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone

75 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

76 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson

77= Life on Earth by David Attenborough

77= Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

79 A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer

80 The Dukan Diet by Pierre Dukan

81 Down Under by Bill Bryson

82= High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

82= McCarthy’s Bar by Pete McCarthy

84 Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss

85 First Man In by Ant Middleton

86 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

87 The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

88 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

89 Chronicle of the 20th Century

90 Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

91 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

92 The Secret Barrister

93 Schott’s Original Miscellany by Ben Schott

94 Rosemary Conley’s Inch Loss Plan

95 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

96 The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall

97 And Away… by Bob Mortimer

98 The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Philippa Perry

99 The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

100 Life of Pi by Yann Martel

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Our US election event: Gabriel Gatehouse at Backstory

Wednesday 25th September, 7.30pm

With the US election on a knife-edge, BBC foreign correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse, author of The Coming Storm: A Journey into the Heart of the Conspiracy Machine, will guide us through what is at stake based on his deep reporting of the conspiracy theories tearing America apart. 

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• 4 September, 7.30pm Michael Rosen, Rosen’s Almanac SOLD OUT

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• 6 November, 7.30pm Andrew O’Hagan, Caledonian Road SOLD OUT

The Backstory chart

Click on the links to order any of these books from our website with free UK delivery

In the charts again: our August book of the month (Illustration: Savannah Sullivan)

Hardback

1. Evenings and Weekends by Oisin McKenna I devoured this book, set over the course of one sweltering weekend in London, as the deeds and desires of several interconnected characters collide.

2. A Little Trickerie by Rosanna Pike Our book of the month, the moving and engrossing tale of a young woman on the margins of Tudor England who hits upon a cunning plan to free herself and her friends from the repressive grip of church and state.

3. Funny Story by Emily Henry. Propelled back into our bestsellers by Harriet’s recommendation in our “books to make you smile” list.

4. You Are Here by David Nicholls. A rainy English walk. A geography teacher. The perfect ingredients for romance? Well, they are when Nicholls is about.

5. The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden. Now gracing the Booker Prize longlist, it was already a firm Backstory favourite.

Paperback

1. Butter by Asako Yuzuki The phenomenon continues.

2. Kala by Colin Walsh One of my favourite books of last year. A dark, twisty tale of friendship and suspicion set on the Irish coast, perfect for the beach.

3. Murder on Lake Garda by Tom Hindle Savour it with the last few weeks of summer.

4. What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama Follow a Tokyo librarian who prescribes exactly the perfect book for five people at a crossroads in their lives. Maybe Backstory should hire him.

5. Damascus Station by David McCloskey Sun, sex, spies — and Syria. I tore through this debut thriller from a former CIA operative.

Kids

1. The Majorly Awkward BFF Dramas of Lottie Brooks by Katie Kirby

2. Dog Man 12: The Scarlet Shredder by Dav Pilkey

3. The Secret of Golden Island by Natasha Farrant

4. Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

5. Poppy The Pigeon’s London Home by Marion Billet

Happy books: a correction

At least two eagle-eyed Terry Pratchett fans spotted we included the wrong book with Isabel’s recommendation in our “books to make you smile” line-up.

The book she meant to recommend is, in fact, Night Watch. Here’s her recommendation again:

“The best Discworld novel. Sam Vimes goes back in time and finds his younger self facing a corrupt Watch and the battle of Cable Street. More than the sum of its parts!”

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Happy reading!

Tom