Irish Bestsellers 7th November 2020

Children’s books are in the spotlight in this week’s charts. The big news there is that, with impeccable Christmas timing, a new David Walliams book has hit the shelves and manages to nab two spots in the Children’s Top 10: Code Name Bananas is in at nos. 2 and 3 in that category, and nos. 2 and 11 in the overall Top 20. Significantly, not at no. 1 in either chart, which must be a first! Topping Walliams in the Children’s Top 10 is another big seller, Jeff Kinney with book fifteen (yes!) in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series: The Deep End. The Children’s Top 10 also has some new names, with Darragh McCullough at no. 9 with The Great Irish Farm Book; Break the Mould: How to Take Your Place in the World by Sinéad Burke at no. 4; and The Chill Skill by Niall Breslin at no. 7 – perhaps a book we could all do with reading these days!

Our featured book this week is at no. 3 in the Top 20. A Page From My Life by Ray D’Arcy looks like a fabulous book, to cheer us all up and share our stories in these troubled times. Here’s the blurb:

‘We asked listeners to be honest, creative, funny, engaging and evocative in their writing … to try to make us laugh, cry and think. We never imagined we would get the quantity and quality of entries that we did for A Page from My Life.’ – Ray D’Arcy

In the midst of the Covid crisis, the Ray D’Arcy Show invited RTÉ Radio 1 listeners to send in ‘A Page from My Life’: 500 words on a memorable event, or a story simply worth sharing. The response was overwhelming. Ray and his team were inundated with over 2,500 entries, from authors of all ages and all walks of life.

And what those entries created was an extraordinary picture of Irish life in microcosm. Funny and heart-breaking, poignant and surprising, they told a series of unforgettable stories … moments that changed everything, and where life itself seemed to hang in the balance. Quiet reflections on the meaning of love and loss. Hilarious tales of everyday mishaps, chance encounters, and feats of pure imagination. It was a timely reminder of the experiences and values that unite us, even as circumstances contrived to keep us apart.

Introduced by the Ray D’Arcy Show judges – bestselling authors Donal Ryan (The Spinning Heart), Emilie Pine (Notes to Self), Emer McLysaght (the Aisling series) and Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) – A Page From My Life gathers 150 of these stories to form an exhilarating and moving testament to the wonder of everyday life.

And now this week’s charts: