A SPOT OF BOTHER remains my most borrowed UK library book!

I've just received last year's UK library loans figures for my books, courtesy of the Public Lending Right (PLR) organisation. Although my top 2 most borrowed books remain the same, the top 5 features two new entries and the return of a former number one.

A Spot of Bother, illustrated by Vanessa Cabban, is my most borrowed book for the third year running. The sequel to The Pig's Knickers was taken out of UK libraries over eight thousand times last year.

Prince Ribbit, illustrated by Poly Bernatene, has remained at number 2, while How the Borks Became: An Adventure in Evolution, illustrated by Elys Dolan, and Danny Dreadnought Saves the World, illustrated by Martin Chatterton, are new entries at numbers 3 and 5 respectively. 

The number 4 slot is taken by Bringing Down the Moon, illustrated by Vanessa Cabban, which took the number one slot in 2013 and was last in the top 5 in 2015.

The PLR figures show that my books were borrowed from UK libraries a total of 96,514
 times last year.

Position		Title	Nº of loans	Relative Position
1		A Spot of Bother illustrated by Vanessa Cabban	8,344	–
2		Prince Ribbit illustrated by Poly Bernatene	6,085	–
3		How the Borks Became illustrated by Elys Dolan	5,961	↑
4		Bringing Down the Moon illustrated by Vanessa Cabban	5,558	↑
5		Danny Dreadnought Saves the World illustrated by Martin Chatterton	5,419	↑

A big THANK YOU to everyone that borrowed my books, the wonderful librarians that made them available and the UK PLR scheme for helping authors like me to earn a living.

A SPOT OF BOTHER is still my most borrowed UK library book!

I've just received last year's UK library loans figures for my books, courtesy of the Public Lending Right (PLR) organisation. Although my top 5 books most borrowed books remain the same they have shuffled around a little.

A Spot of Bother, illustrated by Vanessa Cabban, is my most borrowed book for the second year running. The sequel to The Pig's Knickers was taken out of UK libraries just over ten thousand times last year.

Prince Ribbit, illustrated by Poly Bernatene, has remained at number 2, while The Silver Serpent Cup, illustrated by Ed Eaves, moves up to number 3 with The Princess and the Pig and Here Be Monsters, both illustrated by Poly Bernatene, completing the top 5.

The PLR figures show that my books were borrowed from UK libraries a total of 114,123
 times last year.

Position		Title	Nº of loans	Relative Position
1		A Spot of Bother illustrated by Vanessa Cabban	10,001	–
2		Prince Ribbit illustrated by Poly Bernatene	9,461	–
3		The Silver Serpent Cup illustrated by Ed Eaves	7,303	↑
4		The Princess and the Pig illustrated by Poly Bernatene	6,472	–
5		Here Be Monsters illustrated by Poly Bernatene	6,376	↓

A big THANK YOU to everyone that borrowed my books, the wonderful librarians that made them available and the UK PLR scheme for helping authors like me to earn a living.

A SPOT OF BOTHER was my most borrowed UK library book in 2018

I've just received last year's UK library loans figures for my books, courtesy of the Public Lending Right (PLR) organisation. Although my top 5 books most borrowed books remain the same they have shuffled around a bit and there is a new number 1!

A Spot of Bother, illustrated by Vanessa Cabban, has jumped from 2nd place last year to become my most borrowed book. The sequel to The Pig's Knickers was taken out of UK libraries over fourteen thousand times last year.

Prince Ribbit, illustrated by Poly Bernatene, has leapfrogged Here Be Monsters and The Princess and the Pig, also illustrated by Poly, to take second place, while The Silver Serpent Cup, illustrated by Ed Eaves, retains its place at number 5.

The PLR figures show that my books were borrowed from UK libraries a total of 138,352 times last year.

Position		Title	Nº of loans	Relative Position
1		A Spot of Bother illustrated by Vanessa Cabban	14,461	↑
2		Prince Ribbit illustrated by Poly Bernatene	13,508	↑
3		Here Be Monsters illustrated by Poly Bernatene	13,038	↓
4		The Princess and the Pig illustrated by Poly Bernatene	10,235	↓
5		The Silver Serpent Cup illustrated by Ed Eaves	9,618	–

A big THANK YOU to everyone that borrowed my books, the wonderful librarians that made them available and the UK PLR scheme for helping authors like me to earn a living.

HERE BE MONSTERS remains my most borrowed book

I've just received last year's UK library loans figures for my books, courtesy of the Public Lending Right (PLR) organisation.

Here Be Monsters, illustrated by Poly Bernatene, is my most borrowed book for the second year running. The tale of dastardly pirates and ravenous monsters was taken out of UK libraries over seventeen thousand times last year.

A Spot of Bother, illustrated by Vanessa Cabban, has jumped from fifth to second place, while Prince Ribbit, also illustrated by Poly Bernatene, has entered the top 5 for the first time at number 4.

The PLR figures show that my books were borrowed from UK libraries a total of 149,917 times last year.

Position		Title	Nº of loans	Relative Position
1		Here Be Monsters illustrated by Poly Bernatene	17,374	–
2		A Spot of Bother illustrated by Vanessa Cabban	15,935	↑
3		The Princess and the Pig illustrated by Poly Bernatene	14,166	↓
4		Prince Ribbit illustrated by Poly Bernatene	13,693	↑
5		The Silver Serpent Cup illustrated by Ed Eaves	12,291	↓

A big THANK YOU to everyone that borrowed my books, the wonderful librarians that made them available and the UK PLR scheme for helping authors like me to earn a living.

HERE BE MONSTERS sails to the top of my "Most Borrowed Books" chart.

Yesterday I received last year's UK library loans figures for my books, courtesy of the Public Lending Right (PLR) organisation.

Here Be Monsters, illustrated by Poly Bernatene, has swapped places with The Princess and the Pig (also illustrated by Poly Bernatene) to become my most borrowed book. The tale of dastardly pirates and ravenous monsters was taken out of UK libraries over twenty-two thousand times last year.

There are three new entries in the remaining top five spots. The Silver Serpent Cup, illustrated by Ed Eaves, races in at number three, while The Clockwork Dragon, illustrated by Elys Dolan, and A Spot of Bother, illustrated by Vanessa Cabban take slots four and five.

The PLR figures show that my books were borrowed from UK libraries a total of 166,280 times last year.

Here are my top 5 most borrowed books.

Position		Title	Nº of loans	Relative Position
1		Here Be Monsters illustrated by Poly Bernatene	22,454	↑
2		The Princess and the Pig illustrated by Poly Bernatene	18,730	↓
3		The Silver Serpent Cup illustrated by Ed Eaves	15,312	↑
4		The Clockwork Dragon illustrated by Elys Dolan	12,977	↑
5		A Spot of Bother illustrated by Vanessa Cabban	9,508	↑

A big THANK YOU to everyone that borrowed my books, the wonderful librarians that made them available and the PLR organisation for helping authors like me to earn a living.

THE PRINCESS AND THE PIG is still top of my library loans!

The Princess and the Pig
was my most borrowed book

Yesterday I received last year's UK library loans figures for my books, courtesy of the Public Lending Right (PLR) organisation.

The Princess and the Pig illustrated by Poly Bernatene, is still my most borrowed book, having been borrowed over twenty thousand times. The other two picture books I've done with Poly, Here Be Monsters and The Santa Trap came in second and third, with the other two top five spots being taken by The Pig's Knickers and A Secret Worth Sharing which are both illustrated by Vanessa Cabban.

The PLR figures show that my books were borrowed from UK libraries a total of 160,784 times last year.

Here are my top 5 most borrowed books.

Position		Title	Nº of loans	Relative Position
1		The Princess and the Pig illustrated by Poly Bernatene	20,786	–
2		Here Be Monsters illustrated by Poly Bernatene	18,937	↑
3		The Santa Trap illustrated by Poly Bernatene	9,873	↑
4		The Pig’s Knickers illustrated by Vanessa Cabban	9,821	↓
5		A Secret Worth Sharing illustrated by Vanessa Cabban	9,498	↓

A big THANK YOU to everyone that borrowed my books, the wonderful librarians that made them available and the PLR organisation for helping authors like me to earn a living.

UPDATE 23 March 2016:
The 2015 PLR figures were revised and re-issued in March 2015 after a clerical error was discovered in the original figures. This post has been revised to reflect the new figures, which resulted in a re-ordering of the top 5 shown above.

THE PRINCESS AND THE PIG is still my most borrowed book

The Princess and the Pig
was my most borrowed book

This week I received last year's UK library loans figures for my books, courtesy of the Public Lending Right (PLR) organisation.

The Princess and the Pig illustrated by Poly Bernatene, retains its crown as my most borrowed book, having been borrowed over 23 thousand times. A Secret Worth Sharing, The Pig's Knickers and Bringing Down the Moon, all illustrated by Vanessa Cabban, also stay in the top 5. And Someone Bigger illustrated by Adrian Reynolds, (which topped my chart for seven years between 2005 and 2011) returns to the top 5 after dropping out last year.

The PLR figures show that my books were borrowed from UK libraries a total of 167,799 times last year.

Here are my top 5 most borrowed books.

Position		Title	Nº of loans	Relative Position
1		The Princess and the Pig	23,573	–
2		A Secret Worth Sharing	12,902	↑
3		The Pig’s Knickers	11,452	↑
4		Bringing Down the Moon	9,549	↓
5		Someone Bigger	9,307	↑

A big THANK YOU to everyone that borrowed my books, the wonderful librarians that made them available and the PLR organisation for helping authors like me to earn a living.

THE PRINCESS AND THE PIG is my most borrowed book from UK libraries

The Princess and the Pig
was my most borrowed book

I recently received last year's UK library loans figures for my books, courtesy of the Public Lending Right (PLR) organisation.

There's been quite a shakeup among my most borrowed books, with three books appearing in the top 5 for the first time, including The Princess and the Pig, which knocked last year's most borrowed book Bringing Down the Moon, off the top spot.

My latest Mole and Friends picture book, A Secret Worth Sharing and piratical picture book, The Treasure of Captain Claw, also made it into the top 5 for the first time.

The PLR figures show that my books were borrowed from UK libraries a total of 208,308 times last year, slightly up from 204,491 loans the previous year.

Here are my top 5 most borrowed books.

Position	Book Title	Nº of Loans
1	The Princess and the Pig	17,330	↑
2	Bringing Down the Moon	14,922	↓
3	A Secret Worth Sharing	13,868	↑
4	The Treasure of Captain Claw	13,388	↑
5	The Pig’s Knickers	13,183	↓

  

The PLR organisation also publishes a list of the UK's Most Borrowed Authors and I've crept up 9 places in this to 171st place. The top 3 remain the same this year with US crime writer James Patterson in first place,  "Daisy Meadows" (the pseudonym used by a collection of authors who write the Rainbow Magic series) in second place and Julia Donaldson in third.

BRINGING DOWN THE MOON tops my library loans chart!

Bringing Down the Moon
is my most borrowed book

I've just received last year's UK library loans figures for my books, courtesy of the Public Lending Right (PLR) organisation.

I'm always interested to see which of my books are most popular in libraries and the loans figures are often surprisingly different from my sales figures.

For the last seven years my kite-flying picture book Someone Bigger has topped my loans chart by a considerable margin, but it's finally been knocked off the top spot by the first Mole and Friends picture book, Bringing Down the Moon. 

Farmyard frolic, The Pig's Knickers makes its first appearance in the top 5 at number 3, but a surprising new entry at number 5 is Monsters: An Owners Guide. This book came out in 2010 but went out of print less than two years later due to low sales.  However it's obviously been far more popular in libraries.

Out of print picture book
Monsters: An Owner's Guide is a
surprise entry in the top 5

Here are my top 5 most borrowed books.

Position	Book Title	Nº of Loans
1	Bringing Down the Moon	20,013	↑
2	Someone Bigger	17,070	↓
3	The Pig’s Knickers	13,449	↑
4	Diamond in the Snow	12,419	↓
5	Monsters: An Owner’s Guide	12,051	↑

  

The PLR organisation also publishes a list of the UK's Most Borrowed Authors and I've crept up another 12 places in this to 180th place. The most borrowed author was once again US crime writer James Patterson, with children's "author" Daisy Meadows in second place again. "Daisy Meadows" is the pseudonym used by a collection of authors who write the Rainbow Magic series, so the highest ranking individual children's author was picture book maestro Julia Donaldson in third place.

4th US award nomination for The Princess and the Pig!

I've known since last year that The Princess and the Pig, one of the picture books I've done with illustrator Poly Bernatene, is shortlisted for three different book awards in the US states of North Carolina, Washington and Maryland. The winners for these will be announced in the next couple of months. And now I've just been told that the book has also been shortlisted for the Georgia Children's Book Awards 2013-2014, the winners of which will be announced next year.

---

UPDATE 4/1/14:
I'm delighted to announce that Monsters: An Owners Guide is now BACK IN PRINT in a Let's Read mini-paperback edition.

SOMEONE BIGGER tops my UK library loans chart again

For the seventh year running my kite-flying picture book Someone Bigger was my most borrowed book from UK libraries last year. However the huge lead it previously had over my other books dwindled from around 10,000 to a mere 1,458 loans.

My five most borrowed books are shown below.

Book Title	Nº of Loans
Someone Bigger	18,600
Bringing Down the Moon	17,142
Diamond in the Snow	12,399
I Love You Always and Forever	11,753
Pigs Might Fly	11,471

After dropping a few places the previous year, I've crept back up the Most Borrowed Authors Chart to a giddy 192nd place.  The most borrowed author was US crime writer James Patterson, with children's "author" Daisy Meadows in second place.  "Daisy Meadows" is the pseudonym used by a collection of authors who write the Rainbow Magic series, so the highest ranking individual children's authors were Jacqueline Wilson and Francesca Simon, who took fourth and fifth place behind US romantic novelist Nora Roberts.