Instagram “cleanfluencer” Mrs Hinch has toppled Hilary Mantel and David Walliams to return to the top of the book charts as Britons stuck at home turn to tidying their rooms with a vengeance.
Leapfrogging Mantel’s novel The Mirror and the Light and Walliams’ new children’s book Slime into the overall No 1 spot in the UK’s book charts, The Little Book of Lists is a collection of “life-changing” lists about cleaning routines by Mrs Hinch – real name Sophie Hinchcliffe – who has 3.3 million followers on Instagram. The book also contains cleaning plans by the author and provides space for readers’ own. “Fresh’n Up Friday”, for example, lays out tasks such as “make and spray bed” and “polish/organise dressing table”.
“Nothing feels better than ticking off those boxes and putting down my crystal pen at the end of a productive day,” writes Hinchcliffe.
The closure of bookshops around the country means that true figures are unavailable from sales monitor Nielsen Book International, but available data show The Little Book of Lists the clear frontrunner. Fans spent £5m on Hinchcliffe’s previous books in 2019, said Nielsen’s Philip Stone, with her Activity Journal making it to sixth place in this week’s charts, and her 2019 book Hinch Yourself Happy hitting 39th.
Another cleaning book, The Easy Life by Lynsey Crombie, Queen of Clean, also narrowly missed the bestseller charts, said Stone: “It seems cleaning has become a self-isolation boredom-buster for many in the UK.”
Hinchcliffe’s publisher at Michael Joseph, Charlotte Hardman, said cleaning was becoming a source of comfort for people at home. “There is so much that is beyond our control right now, but cleaning is something that we can do, not only to make happy homes, but also to help ease anxiety,” she said. “Sophie has built up an incredible community where followers can feel connected and together in this time of isolation. She is like a ray of sunshine.”
Stone said gardening books, language-learning titles and beginner’s guides to musical instruments had also been climbing the charts in recent weeks, “giving a clue as to how many are spending their time in isolation”. At Waterstones, Bea Carvalho pointed to “an unsurprising spike in sales of self-improvement books, and books which make the most of time spent indoors” at the book chain, which is now only selling books online after all its stores were closed.
