Books: Best-sellers

Delia, patron saint of omelette pan and cake tin manufacturers, is now so far ahead of the competition that if her supermarket book sales were added to the bookshop figures, she would probably find herself outselling the entire fiction and non-fiction list combined.

There are two re-entries on the lists: Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters, shortlisted for the Whitbread and TS Eliot awards, and Stephen King's Bag of Bones. Although number nine on the non-fiction list, Tony Adams with Ian Ridley are streets ahead of all other sports books. Addicted is outselling football's other bad boy, Vinnie Jones's autobiography by more than 2:1.

Compiled from data supplied by bookshops on sales over seven days ending 15 November 1998

Bookwatch Ltd, 1998

ORIGINAL FICTION

TITLE AUTHOR/PUBLISHER WEEKLY SALES PRICE

1 (1) Carpe Jugulum Terry Pratchett (Doubleday) 12,562 pounds 16.99

2 (7) Tara Road Maeve Binchy (Orion) 3,094 pounds 16.99

3 (6) Field of 13 Dick Francis (M Joseph) 2,999 pounds 6.99

4 (9) Point of Origin Patricia D Cornwell (Little, Brown) 2,587 pounds 16.99

5 (3) Charlotte Gray Sebastian Faulks (Hutchinson) 2,534 pounds 16.99

6 (5) Rainbow Six Tom Clancy (M Joseph) 2,432 pounds 16.99

7 (2) Amsterdam Ian McEwan (Cape) 2,005 pounds 14.99

8 (4) The Path of Daggers Robert Jordan (Orbit) 1,967 pounds 17.99

9 (-) Bag of Bones Stephen King (Hodder) 1,854 pounds 16.99

10 (-) The Blind Years Catherine Cookson (Bantam) 1,714 pounds 9.99

ORIGINAL NON-FICTION

TITLE AUTHOR/PUBLISHER WEEKLY SALES PRICE

1 (1) Delia's How to Cook Delia Smith (BBC) 26,008 pounds 16.99

2 (2) Notes From a Big Country Bill Bryson (Doubleday) 9,723 pounds 16.99

3 (4) The Little Book of Calm Paul Wilson (Penguin) 4,470 pounds 1.99

4 (-) Blackadder Richard Curtis et al (M Joseph) 3,798 pounds 15.99

5 (5) Men are From Mars... John Gray (Thorsons) 3,726 pounds 9.99

6 (6) Little Book of Feng Shui Lillian Too (Element) 3,597 pounds 1.99

7 (3) The Life of Birds David Attenborough (BBC) 3,418 pounds 18.99

8 (8) Losing My Virginity Richard Branson (Virgin) 3,088 pounds 20

9 (9) Addicted Tony Adams & Ian Ridley (CollinsWillow) 2,950 pounds 16.99

10 (-) Birthday Letters Ted Hughes (Faber) 2,940 pounds 14.99