Subject: OXFAM REVEALS SECOND-HAND BESTSELLER LIST
From: SFowkes@oxfam.org.uk
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:19:16 +0100
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Embargoed until 0001, Friday 21 August 2009


OXFAM REVEALS SECOND-HAND BESTSELLER LIST

Dan Brown is the UK’s most donated author; Ian Rankin tops the Oxfam shop fiction bestsellers list

A survey of sales and donations across Oxfam’s network of 700 high street shops today reveals the biggest names in donated fiction, in the first-ever high street second-hand bestseller chart.

Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s books are the most donated to Oxfam shops in the UK, but also the second most bought. Inspector Rebus creator Ian Rankin sells the most books, and comes in at number three in the most-donated list.

Oxfam’s recent nationwide book festival, Bookfest, has seen donations of books to the charity’s shop network rise by 40% so far, with book sales also dramatically increasing due to massive public response to the festival. The festival ran from 4 to 18 July, and featured more than 250 events nationwide – see www.oxfam.org.uk/books for more information.

The most donated authors to Oxfam shops are:

Dan Brown
John Grisham
Ian Rankin
Danielle Steel
Helen Fielding
Stephen King
JK Rowling
Catherine Cookson
Patricia Cornwell
Mills & Boon

The Oxfam shop bestseller list is:

Ian Rankin
Dan Brown
Bernard Cornwell
Stephanie Meyer
Terry Pratchett
Khaled Hosseini
Helen Fielding
Margaret Attwood
James Patterson
Jodi Picoult

On being the Oxfam shop bestseller, Ian Rankin said: “It's always good for an author to know that their books are popular. With Oxfam, it's also heartening to realise that each book donated and bought is helping such a worthwhile organisation.”

Oxfam is Europe’s biggest high street retailer of second-hand books, and the third-biggest bookseller in the UK.  
Oxfam has more than 130 specialist bookshops and sells books in nearly all of its 700 shops, compared with 314 Waterstones stores* and 52 Borders stores**.
The charity sells £1.6 million of books per month – enough to buy 50,000 emergency shelters, safe water for 2.1 million people, or 64,000 goats.

Dozens of rarities and first editions have been donated to Oxfam shops just since May – the top ten donated books alone have raised more than £4,500:

JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings – first edition, sold for £800
Don Giovanni sheet music – first edition, sold for £750
Sowerby’s Catalogue of Shells – sold for £600
Richard Adams, Watership Down – first edition, sold for £500
Handbook of Indian Dances  - first edition with hand-blocked prints, sold for £500
Richmal Crompton, Just William­ – first edition, sold for £440
Sylvia Plath, Ariel – first edition, sold for £350
Ian Fleming, From Russia With Love – first edition, sold for £300
Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit – second print, sold for £200
W.E. Johns, Biggles in Australia – first edition, sold for £150

-Ends-

For more information and to arrange interviews, please contact:
Stuart Fowkes / 01865 472254 / 07818 406038 / sfowkes@oxfam.org.uk
 
Notes to editors

The first bookshop was opened in St Giles, Oxford, in 1987.
The most Oxfam has raised from a single book is £18,000, for a 17th century economic treatise in 2005, and also for a rare Graham Greene book in 2008*. Both books were sold at auction.
Volunteers in the Harrogate shop spotted the very first appearance in print of Sherlock Holmes (A Study in Scarlet) in a Victorian annual – it was auctioned for £15,500.
The average price of a second hand book from an Oxfam shop is £1.60
Our bookshops make on average 21% more than regular Oxfam shops.
Oxfam raised £19million in 2008 through the sale of books, 49% of which came from specialist bookshops.
Oxfam’s shop network is supported by over 21,000 volunteers.
Oxfam shops are the only place on the high street where you can pick up everything from the latest Harry Potter novel or Jamie Oliver cookery book through to rare first editions and hidden treasures hundreds of years old.


You can find out more about Oxfam and books at www.oxfam.org.uk/books

* Source: http://www.hmvgroup.com/aboutus/fastfacts.jsp
** Source: http://www.borders.co.uk/local

Stuart Fowkes
PR Manager, Oxfam
01865 472254
07818 406038
Skype: stuartfowkes
Twitter: http://twitter.com/oxfamgb

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/news

Oxfam works with others to overcome poverty and suffering.

Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International and a company limited by guarantee registered in England No. 612172.
Registered office: Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JY.
A registered charity in England and Wales (no 202918) and Scotland (SCO 039042)