Public Lending Right 2013

The public-lending right results are in, totting up my royalties from British library loans this year, with no real surprises to regular followers of this column. My samurai history is at number one, but the Spartacus novel goes straight into the charts at a respectable number four, with only six months to earn that level.

1. A Brief History of the Samurai

2. Confucius: A Biography

3. A Brief History of the Vikings

4. Spartacus: Swords and Ashes

5. A Brief History of Khubilai Khan

6. Darwin’s Notebook

7. The First Emperor of China

8. Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy

9. Wu

10. Beijing: The Biography of a City

As ever, this is the list of books with my name on them. My top-earning book, for the tenth year in a row, is actually an obscure children’s work I wrote under a pseudonym in a long weekend. You never know what’s going to bring in the cash.