Interesting Facts

A study at Brigham Young University found that popular novels aimed at teenagers contain, on average, 38 swear words per novel. (Professor Sarah Coyne, of Brigham Young University in America, found that 88 per cent of all the books on the adolescent best-seller list contained at least one swear word, she also noticed that the most popular characters were the most foul-mouthed.)

Wincanton, in Somerset, England, is twinned with the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork from the bestselling series of books, Discworld, making it the first town in the world to link up with a fictional place. (Discworld,is a sci-fi universe created by the novelist, Sir Terry Pratchett. Since Wincanton twinned itself with Ankh-Morpork, there has been an increase in tourism. Wimpey Homes have even got in on the act by using Discworld to name two roads on their new "Kingwell Rise" development, so you can buy a house on Peach Pie Street or Treacle Mine Road.)

More than half the books in the fiction charts are crime titles. (Today women write more than half of all crime novels, a genre read by a predominantly female audience. Let's face it Agatha Christie is still considered the queen of crime fiction.)

The world's bestselling author, JK Rowling, has sold more than three times as many books as the next two. (The next two are Enid Blyton and Dr Seuss, who have an estimated 100 million sales each. I think there might be something in this "writing for children" lark.) Listen here .

The French translation of the bestselling book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has an extra 120 pages. (   The reason is that French is a less concise language than English, but d oes it mean it's more expensive in France?)

It's said that one copy a minute of 'The Hungry Caterpillar' has been sold since it was released in 1969. (The film and TV rights have just been bought for £1m. I wish I could write children's books!)