The Mirror and the Light shines with huge first-week sales

Hilary Mantel’s conclusion to her Thomas Cromwell trilogy sold more than 95,000 copies in three days

Hilary Mantel’s much-anticipated The Mirror and the Light has been selling a copy every 2.7 seconds since its release last Thursday, with the final book in the two-time Booker winner’s trilogy selling more than 95,000 print copies in just three days.

According to figures from sales monitor Nielsen BookScan, 5p in every £1 spent on books in the UK last week went towards a copy of The Mirror and the Light. After an eight-year wait since the last book, 2012’s Bring Up the Bodies, excited fans lined up to buy the novel at bookshops around the UK at midnight on Wednesday.

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