Should you wonder who the wealthiest authors in Britain are, wonder no more. The Bookseller recently drew up a list of Britain’s 50th most successful authors of all time. And some of these are certainly not a surprise. JK Rowling tops the list with sales that have reached more than £237.6million Second in line is Jamie Oliver, whose bestsellers The Naked Chef and Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals (among other projects) have brought him £126million.
Interestingly, other chefs are on the list as well, with Delia Smith in tenth place, Nigella Lawson at 19th and Gordon Ramsay at 45th. Together, these four chefs account for 40% of all cookbooks sold in Britain since 1998.
It’s probably no surprise that EL James, the British author of the Fifty Shakes of Grey series, who wasn’t even known last year, now ranks as the 26th most successful writer in the UK. Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code is on the list, of course, at number 6; while Stieg Larsson is ranked No 36 with sales of over £32million for the Millennium series of novels.
Children’s authors are on the list as well. Enid Blyton is number 37, and Tracey Beaker and Roger Hargreaves are in the top 50 as well.
