The fourth Pinch of Nom cookbook, a collection of slimming comfort food recipes, has narrowly pipped Richard Osman to the top of the book charts this Christmas.

Sales figures from industry analysts Nielsen Book reveal that the race to be Christmas No 1 was unusually close this year. While Pinch of Nom: Comfort Food by Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone sold 56,367 copies in the week ending 18 December, Osman’s second cosy crime novel, The Man Who Died Twice, was just 1,107 copies behind in second place. According to Nielsen, the only time the festive battle was closer was in 2001, when Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days With the Naked Chef beat Delia Smith’s How to Cook: Book Three by just 326 copies.

This isn’t Allinson and Featherstone’s first time at the top of the charts – their first book, Pinch of Nom, was released in 2019 and became the fastest-selling non-fiction book since records began, with sales of 210,506 copies in its first week.

“Our data reveals that £637,000 was spent on copies of their Pinch of Nom books in the UK last week, at an impressive rate of one copy sold every 10 seconds,” said Philip Stone, an analyst at Nielsen Book. The festive period is key for booksellers, and The Bookseller reported that the books market rose by 13.6% in volume and 14.9% in value in the week to 18 December, with 9.3 million books sold, worth £86.1m.

Osman, who took the Christmas No 1 in 2020 with The Thursday Murder Club, can comfort himself with the fact that he is the only author to have two titles in this year’s Christmas Top 10: The Thursday Murder Club sold 44,736 copies to come in fourth.

Literary offerings from male celebrities were popular among book buyers this Christmas, with titles by Billy Connolly, Ian Hislop, Jeremy Clarkson, Bob Mortimer and David Walliams all in the Top 10. Walliams made the list with his latest children’s book, Gangsta Granny Strikes Again!, while Hislop fronts the latest Private Eye annual. Lisa Jewell’s thriller The Night She Disappeared, and the new Guinness World Records, complete the Top 10.

At Waterstones, Bea Carvalho said sales had been strong “across a wide range of titles and genres”, from Paul McCartney’s The Lyrics to Janice Hallett’s cosy crime novel The Appeal, and Charlotte Higgins’ Greek Myths. Warren Ellis’s memoir, Nina Simone’s Gum, has also taken off, said Carvalho, describing it as “surely one of the year’s most surprising and original non-fiction books”, while Kate Davies and Lucille Clerc’s fairytale retellings, Fairy Tale Land, has had an enthusiastic response at the UK’s largest book chain.

“Wintry cosy crime has been selling strongly, with titles such as Death on the Trans-Siberian Express appealing to fans of genre bestsellers such as Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club,” said Carvalho, also praising this year’s “astonishingly strong lineup in literary fiction”, with Waterstones booksellers “particularly enjoying recommending Claire Keegan’s wonderful Small Things Like These recently”.

UK Top 10 bestsellers: week ending 18 December 2021

1. Pinch of Nom: Comfort Food (Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone) 56,367 copies sold
2. The Man Who Died Twice (Richard Osman) 55,260
3. Guinness World Records 2022 (Guinness World Records) 51,682
4. The Thursday Murder Club (Richard Osman) 44,736
5. Windswept & Interesting (Billy Connolly) 44,223
6. Diddly Squat (Jeremy Clarkson) 37,961
7. And Away … (Bob Mortimer) 35,607
8. Gangsta Granny Strikes Again! (David Walliams) 34,055
9. Private Eye Annual 2021 (Ian Hislop) 30,452
10. The Night She Disappeared (Lisa Jewell) 27,740