Book trade snippets

From The Bookseller.

Ten (that’s all ten) of the current top ten bestsellers in the Children’s Non-fiction category are by the same author. They’re all from Terry Deary’s series of ‘Horrible Histories’ for secondary school kids, with names like ‘The Terrible Tudors‘, ‘The Barmy British Empire‘ and ‘The Rotten Romans‘.

The thinning out of the legendary strip of bookshops on the East side of London’s Charing Cross Road (one of London’s most important cultural resources) continues – both branches of Zwemmer’s Art Bookshops were this week repossessed by their landlords, the non-profit Soho Housing Association. Zwemmer’s claims all is well and that the eviction is just part of a particularly tough round of lease negotiations. Ian Shipley, who runs the excellent Shipley’s Art Bookshop in the same block, obviously isn’t so sure: “There used to be bookshops all the way from the National Gallery to the British Museum. If this lot go, what’s the point in me staying?” (free subscription required).

One third of British adults didn’t buy a book in the last year and 20% neither bought nor read one. 54% classify themselves as either light- or non-readers (survey of 2000 people – free subscription required)