Memoirs smash sales records as tome tops bookshops' lists

Tony Blair's memoirs broke sales records after a "stupendous" launch day, said booksellers.

The tome – A Journey – hugely outsold all other books at Waterstone’s yesterday, becoming the chain’s fastest-selling autobiography ever, and shot to the top of Amazon.co.uk’s best-seller list.

The former prime minister’s account of his time in Downing Street sold more copies on its first day of publication than the autobiographies of celebrities and sports stars including David Beckham and Russell Brand, said Waterstone’s.

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Rankings on Amazon’s foreign websites show the book has also been a success in the United States, where it is currently the 12th best seller, and Canada, where it is 9th.

But it is proving less popular with readers on the Continent. It is just 366th in Amazon France’s best-seller list, while in Germany it is down in 529th place ahead of its publication there next week.

Waterstone’s, Britain’s biggest bookseller, would not provide precise sales figures but said the book had been a “stupendous” and “unprecedented” success.

A spokesman said: “We’ve never seen a book like this sell so quickly in one day. It was by some way the biggest selling book for Waterstone’s.

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“This is a serious book, a heavyweight political memoir. It’s selling in the sort of numbers you don’t see outside of mass market fiction with huge appeal – Dan Brown and JK Rowling are the competition here.”

Waterstone’s sold as many copies of A Journey as they did of former business secretary Lord Mandelson’s memoirs The Third Man in three weeks.

Heavy discounting helped early sales of Mr Blair’s book – it is currently reduced by 50 per cent to 12.50 at Waterstone’s, Amazon and WH Smith.

A Journey is on target to become Amazon.co.uk’s biggest selling memoir of all time, selling more than three times as many copies on its release date as Mr Mandelson’s book.

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A signed copy of Mr Blair’s memoirs was already on sale on auction website eBay yesterday with a starting price of 99.99.

The strong early sales bode well for the Royal British Legion, which will receive all Mr Blair’s profits from the book to help fund a new sports centre for injured troops.