"Just over 50 years ago, on April 14, 1974, a new feature appeared in The Sunday Times — the bestseller list. In it, the paper documented the most popular fiction, non-fiction and paperbacks, which in that first week included an autobiography by the Duchess of Bedford and Jaws by Peter Benchley.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the bestseller list, we have calculated the top 100 bestselling books of the past five decades, according to how many weeks a title has spent in the Top Ten. The results are a fascinating insight into modern Britain: the topics we care about, the voices we enjoy most and, crucially, how we want to appear to others."
