Michelle Obama Becomes First Person Of Colour To Top Christmas Book Chart

She's also the first woman in a decade to win the title.
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Michelle Obama has become the first person of colour to top the UK’s Christmas book chart with her memoir ‘Becoming’.

The book – which charts the former first lady’s childhood in Chicago, her legal career and her journey to the White House – has taken the number one spot, figures from Nielsen BookScan showed.

Sales of ‘Becoming’ have tipped £1.36 million in Britain – Obama sold 91,882 copies between 9 and 15 December, and ended David Walliams’ reign as Britain’s best-selling festive author with his kids’ book, ‘The Ice Monster’.

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Not only does Obama’s success mark a step forward for diversity in literature, she’s also the first woman to win the accolade since JK Rowling in 2008.

Walliams, who came in second place, sold 80,413 copies of ‘The Ice Monster’. He posted a congratulatory message on Twitter to Obama, saying: “Congratulations Michelle Obama for beating my book ‘The Ice Monster’ to the UK Christmas #1 spot with your brilliant memoir ‘Becoming’. You are rightfully sitting at the very top of the tree like the shining light you are.”

Joe Wicks, best known as The Body Coach, was in third place with his vegetarian ‘Lean In 15’ recipe book, published on 13th December.

‘Becoming’ is now one of the fastest-selling memoirs ever, according to Nielsen.

In more great news for Obama fans in the UK, people have a second chance to see her in person.

More than 50,000 people tried to buy tickets for her first event at London’s Southbank Centre. HuffPostUK met some of the 300 school children in attendance. “This is better than the Olympics,” said one. “I’m so excited.”

Obama has now announced she’ll be returning to the city on Sunday 14 April 2019 and this time around the venue will be a lot bigger – it’s at the O2 Arena, which has a capacity of 20,000 people.

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