Richard Osman becomes first debut author to land Christmas No 1

The Thursday Murder Club sees off titles by Barack Obama and David Walliams in chaotic week for Britain’s book trade

Richard Osman’s cosy mystery about a group of elderly sleuths, The Thursday Murder Club, has become the first debut novel ever to become the Christmas No 1, selling a remarkable 134,514 copies in seven days.

The Pointless presenter’s novel beat Barack Obama’s memoir A Promised Land to the Christmas top spot, the sales monitor Nielsen BookScan said on Tuesday. Osman’s novel has flown off shelves since its publication in September and sold more than twice the number of copies of Obama’s memoirs over the past week.

Related: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman review – cosy crime caper

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