October saw major literary events at both ends of the month for The Rye Bookshop. Philip Pullman’s blockbuster finale to his Book of Dust series may have taken six years to write but no one forgot about him in that time. Incredibly, The Rose Field was second on our monthly bestsellers list despite being only on sale for seven days in October. It’s on course to be one of our bestselling hardbacks this year.
Also only available for part of the month (three weeks, not one) was the other stellar publishing title of the month, Charlie Mackesy’s mesmerising follow-up to the beloved The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. Always Remember features the same beautiful artwork and calligraphy, plus the warm heartfelt musings on life. This was, by a distance, our bestselling title of the month and looks set to repeat the feat in November.
Amidst these two titans of UK publishing, October was a month for crime stories. Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall’s debut novel Death at the White Hart was third in our bestselling paperbacks, followed by the Seishi Yokomizo’s Murder at the Black Cat Cafe, a new translation of a 1973 Japanese novel. Then another legend, Richard Osman, brought the Thursday Murder Club out of retirement for a fifth outing in The Impossible Fortune.
The Land in Winter slipped in between the killer tales to become our fourth bestselling book, riding high on its Booker Prize nomination. A chilly tale of snowbound tensions in 1960s rural England, it found a strong audience here in Rye.
Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare continues to sell incredibly well and is on target to be our bestselling non-fiction paperback this year and is fully endorsed by shop manager Emma.
It’s nice, also, to see a children’s hardback title do well this month. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Party Pooper is Jeff Kinney’s 20th entry in this long-running hugely successful series.
General fiction rounded out the top ten with the relatively unknown Alison Espach’s breakout hit, The Wedding People, and So Late in the Day, the latest novella from Irish superstar Claire Keegan.
Top 10
10. So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
9. The Wedding People by Alison Espach
8. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Party Pooper by Jeff Kinney
7. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
6. The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
5. Murder at the Black Cat Cafe by Seishi Yokomizo
4. The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
3. Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall
2. The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume 3 by Philip Pullman
1. Always Remember by Charlie Mackesy
Rye Bookshop often hosts authors and this Saturday 22 November local crime writer Chris O’Donoghue will be signing copies of his new thriller (the seventh in the series), Death on the Rocks. The Sonny Russel mysteries are all set in and around Rye and the Marsh during the 1950s. Chris will be with us from 12-2pm.
Image Credits: Richard Hayden .