In this guest post for Living Knowledge, bestselling historian and Chair of the Public Lending Right (PLR) Advisory Committee Tom Holland delves into the detail behind this year's PLR statistics.

As they ever are, the PLR borrowing figures this year are full of useful pointers to public taste, and rife with intriguing details. The most borrowed author, for the ninth time in a row, was James Patterson. With thrillers constituting nine of the ten most borrowed titles in 2014/15, it is clear that library users in the UK are as addicted to reading about crime as they have ever been. Non-fiction writers who aspire to chart should maybe think about brushing up their culinary skills: Jamie Oliver has the most borrowed non-fiction title of 2014/15, while Mary Berry ranks as the single most borrowed non-fiction author.

 

Versions of David Walliams' Demon Dentist charted twice on the list of most-borrowed audio-books, while the most borrowed author in UK public libraries was James Patterson.

An innovation this year was the extension of PLR, which is administered by the British Library, to both the authors and the narrators of audio-books. 109 narrators in all received payments, with one of them alone – Jeff Harding – registering over 650 titles. With the 20% share that was his right as a narrator earning him upwards of £3,000, his resolve to spread the word about PLR is as welcome as it is unsurprising. “I honestly thought that PLR income would be pennies, not pounds. I am happily surprised and sure to spread the good word among my fellow narrators!”

The most significant pattern to be traced in the PLR borrowing figures this year is also the most encouraging. Four authors registered over a million loans – and of those four, three write for children. Charting behind James Patterson were Julia Donaldson, the various writers who contribute to the Rainbow Magic series under the pseudonym of ‘Daisy Meadows’, and Francesca Simon. Children’s writers are also omnipresent in the list of authors with the most books in the Top 100. Jeff Kinney has seven; David Walliams five; Liz Pichon four. The only author to have more is – surprise, surprise – James Patterson.

It is a similar story with audio-book loans. The top ten are evenly divided between thrillers and children’s book – with JK Rowling, aka Robert Galbraith, pulling off the remarkable feat of having two in each category. The implications of these figures for the future of libraries is highly encouraging. At a time when falling numbers of borrowers have combined with the struggle for survival that many libraries are currently facing, it would be easy to surrender to pessimism, and fear that the pass is sold. The enthusiasm of today’s generation of children for borrowing from libraries suggests the opposite. This year’s PLR offers writers a double encouragement: as well as remunerating their efforts financially, it also offers them an assurance that library books have a future.

Tom Holland

Chair, PLR Advisory Committee

 

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