Just over 50 years ago, on April 14, 1974, a new feature appeared in The Sunday Times — the bestseller list. In it, the paper documented the most popular fiction, non-fiction and paperbacks, which in that first week included an autobiography by the Duchess of Bedford and Jaws by Peter Benchley.
The list was the first of its kind in the UK, and not uncontroversial (some critics declared it “anti-literary” or even “unEnglish”) but no one could have guessed just how important it would go on to be. Today, becoming a Sunday Times bestseller is the ultimate benchmark of commercial success for authors and publishers alike.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the bestseller list, we have calculated the top 100 bestselling books of the