Gardening writer whose no-nonsense Expert guides have remained in the bestseller lists since the 1950sDavid Hessayon, who has died aged 96, was a chemist who became the world’s most successful gardening writer. His no-nonsense, populist Expert guides are jam-packed with information and were produced to his own design: instructive text supported by deftly organised charts, pictures and diagrams. Hessayon once said that people were not interested in reading about gardening: “What they are interested in is finding answers to a problem.”His formula, which achieved sales of 50 million copies over 50 years, hardly changed. His first book, under the name Dr DG Hessayon, was Be Your Own Gardening Expert. Published in 1959, it sold 5.7 million copies in half a century (its original cover showed a man with pipe and hoe, and woman with apron and basket). Be Your Own House Plant Expert (1960) was reckoned to be the bestselling reference book of all time after the Bible, which, as Hessayon pointed out, “had a head start” on him. This was followed by Be Your Own Lawn Expert (1962), Be Your Own Rose Expert (1964) and many others. In 2006, The Vegetable and Herb Expert was Britain’s bestselling gardening paperback, and eight of the top 10 gardening titles of that year came from his Expert series. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2025-02-24 11:02:33 UTC ]
It’s another week where the bestseller lists cannot agree: no single title made it into the top ten on all ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-04-10 10:45:00 UTC ]
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As has been the norm recently, the bestseller lists can’t seem to agree on anything. The New York Times bestseller ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-03-27 11:15:00 UTC ]
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Looking at books that make the bestseller lists week after week and the ones that get chosen for big-name book ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-02-25 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Every week, I look at the biggest bestseller lists and note the overlap to see the bestselling books of the ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-02-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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The new year has begun in earnest, but because the bestseller lists report on figures from two weeks ago, they’re ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-01-16 11:15:00 UTC ]
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This week’s bestseller lists are reporting on sales from the end of December, a time when very few books are ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-01-09 12:15:00 UTC ]
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We’re well into the holiday buying season now, and the bestseller lists reflect that. There aren’t any books that made ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-12-19 12:45:00 UTC ]
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For the last few months, the bestseller lists couldn’t seem to agree on the biggest books of the moment. They ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-12-12 11:15:00 UTC ]
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Vicky Ball expressed delight on X at selling two novels at an event – then catapulted up Amazon’s book chartsAn aspiring author who went viral after selling two books at an event has described seeing her novel climb up Amazon’s bestseller charts as “amazing” and “unbelievable”.Vicky Ball, a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-12-07 11:51:19 UTC ]
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World Without End topped bestseller lists but was criticised for embracing nuclear powerIn 2019, France’s best known climate expert sat down to work with its most feted graphic novelist. The result? Perhaps the most terrifying comic ever drawn.Part history, part analysis, part vision for the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-19 04:00:05 UTC ]
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The Chinese bestseller lists in August showed an unusual level of interest in newer works as well as the traditionally favored classics. The post China Bestsellers in August: Charting Summer’s End appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-09-30 04:05:32 UTC ]
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The two bestselling authors who both started in TV discuss writing as a second career, natural justice – and what they really think of literary fictionIn the four years since Richard Osman published his first Thursday Murder Club novel he has consistently topped the bestseller lists, and now his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-09-14 09:00:23 UTC ]
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China's April bestseller lists are starting to include more mental-health content for young readers, looking at 'insensitive force' and expressiveness. The post China Bestsellers in April: ‘Insensitive Force’ and Expression appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-05-31 11:44:56 UTC ]
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The Australian author is ‘incredibly influential’, but has had to survive decades of ‘cultural cringe’ and genre snobbery to make finally ‘a decent sort of living’Before parched and dusty towns across Australia became full of fictional sinister people; before the explosion of outback noir and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-05 23:00:18 UTC ]
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Happy Leap Year! Let's look back at the books that dominated bestseller lists on previous leap years. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-02-29 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher tells investors profits will exceed expectations, attributing this to release of House of Flame and Shadow The publisher Bloomsbury has lifted its annual profit forecasts after the latest novel from the fantasy author Sarah J Maas topped bestseller lists across the world, aided by fans... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-14 13:36:52 UTC ]
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