UK LIBRARY CHART TOPPERS 2018/2019

The most borrowed habits of the Nation (2017/2018 position in brackets)

Most borrowed author - Adult and Children’s combined

James Patterson (1)

Most borrowed adult author Most borrowed children’s author

James Patterson (1) Daisy Meadows (1)

5 authors ‘on the up’

Lynda La Plant (61st from 85th last year) Elly Griffiths (45th from 63rd last year) (67th from 79th last year) JK Rowling (17th from 33rd last year) (68th from 79th last year)

Most borrowed titles - Adult and Children’s combined

1. The Midnight Line: ( 22) - 2. The World’s worst Children - David Walliams 3. NYPD Red - James Patterson 4. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman 5. Past Tense: (Jack Reacher 23) - Lee Child 6. Dead if You Don’t - Peter James 7. : (Jack Reacher 21) Lee Child 8. Wild Fire – Ann Cleeves 9. Two Kinds of Truth – 10. Origin – Dan Brown

Most borrowed - Adult titles

1. The Midnight Line: (Jack Reacher 22) - Lee Child 2. NYPD Red - James Patterson 3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman 4. Past Tense: (Jack Reacher 23) - Lee Child 5. Dead if You Don’t - Peter James

Public Lending Right – British Library T +44 (0) 1937 546030 PO Box 751 [email protected] Spa, Wetherby LS22 9FW, United Kingdom www.bl.uk/plr Most borrowed - Children’s titles

1. The World’s worst Children - David Walliams 2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J K Rowling 3. Double Down (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 11) – Jeff Kinney 4. Old School (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 10) – Jeff Kinney 5. Bad Dad – David Walliams

Most borrowed - ebook titles

1. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman 2. The Midnight Line: (Jack Reacher 22) - Lee Child 3. This is going to Hurt – Adam Kay 4. Circe – Madeline Miller 5. Origin – Dan Brown 6. Still Me – Jojo Moyes 7. Into the Water – Paula Hawkins 8. Normal People – Sally Rooney 9. Blood Road – Stuart MacBride 10. (Jack Reacher 1) - Lee Child 11. Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood 12. Dead if You Don’t – Peter James 13. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – JK Rowling 14. Woman in the Window – A.J. Finn 15. Surprise Me – Sophie Kinsella 16. Sapiens – Yoval Noah Harari 17. Fallen – David Baldacii 18. Visitor (Jack Reacher 4) – Lee Child 19. Break – Marian Keyes 20. (Jack Reacher 3) – Lee Child

Most borrowed Audio titles

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J K Rowling 2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets– J K Rowling 3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J K Rowling 4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J K Rowling 5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J K Rowling 6. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince – J K Rowling 7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J K Rowling 8. Fantastic Beasts and where to find them – J K Rowling 9. Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Unabridged – Mark Manson 10. Becoming – Michelle Obama

The results are based on loans attributed to these authors and titles. As well as reflecting the popularity in public libraries, the rankings reflect the constantly changing PLR Sample, and can also be impacted by the availability and quality of bibliographic data used when compiling the lists

Media Contacts

Ash Khan - Media Manager, BL Corporate Affairs

Email: [email protected] Telephone: 020 7412 7105/ 07701022582

The PLR office is happy for the information in this release to be made widely accessible, but would appreciate PLR’s role in compiling it to be acknowledged in any use it is put to.

Editors’ Notes

1. PLR is funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and is run by the British Library from its site at Boston Spa, West Yorkshire. This year PLR distributed £6 million to 21,697 authors at a Rate Per Loan of 9.03 pence. Since its inception in 1979, PLR has distributed over £178million to authors. PLR funding is currently set at £6.6m up to 2020.

2. Authors are eligible for payment if their PLR earnings reach a minimum of £1. There is a maximum payment threshold of £6,600 for the top-lending authors. This year, 200 authors received the maximum payment.

3. The Digital Economy Bill 2017 extended UK Public Lending Right legislation to include remote loans of ebooks from public libraries in England, Scotland and Wales. The collection of remote ebook loans data came into effect on 1 July 2018. The first payments arising from the newly eligible loans were made in February 2020.

4. British authors qualify for payment from a number of other European PLR systems. These include the Irish PLR system which is administered through the UK PLR office on behalf of the Irish government. Payments to UK authors from PLR systems in countries such as France, Germany, Austria and the are distributed by the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS).

5. PLR cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions in bibliographic or loans information supplied by libraries or other agencies or for incorrect information supplied by applicants.

6. For all the latest news follow PLR on Twitter @PLR_UK.