Hipsters and Mindfulness: Ladybird books prove a hit for bookseller Foyles
Publisher Ladybird's series of spoof guides helping adults to make sense of modern day themes from hipsters to hangovers have proved a hit for bookseller Foyles this Christmas.
The family-owned retailer said like-for-like sales jumped by 4.7 per cent for the month of December with seven of Ladybird's for grown up series making it into the top ten bestsellers.
The classic Ladybird books were originally published as educational guides aimed at introducing children to a topics ranging from the Magna Carta to airplanes and nuclear power.
In October, Penguin published eight new books for adults penned by the writers behind BBC comedy show Miranda, including How it Works: The Husband and The Ladybird Book of the Mid-Life Crisis.
Foyles, which has six book stores in Birmingham, Bristol and London, said the strong performance was set against an overall 2.15 per cent drop in prices as shoppers splashed out more on the lower-priced Ladybird books.
“We were delighted in the performance at our flagship Charing Cross Road store and our other London bookshops, bearing in mind a challenging retail environment and lower footfall in the West End reported by other retailers following the Paris terrorist attacks," chief executive Paul Currie said.
"Our regional stores also performed well, and we used the Christmas peak trading to fully understand the different trading profile in our new stores in Bristol and Birmingham," he added.