Hairy Maclary runs away with top honour
Loveable pooch voted top dog of our bookselling trade
Thirty-five years after the first Hairy Maclary book hit New Zealand shelves, the tales of six dogs and one horrible cat are still winning Kiwi hearts. Written by Lynley Dodd and published by Puffin, Hairy Maclary
from Donaldson’s Dairy has been named as the bestselling title of the decade. More than 265,000 copies have been shipped to New Zealand booksellers.
The NZ Bookshop competition included seven New Zealand novels, eight children’s books and five nonfiction titles voted as favourites by booksellers.
Numbers were taken from a decade of Nielsen BookScan data and after tallying 1775 votes, Hairy Maclary came out on top with 251 votes.
Booksellers New Zealand chief executive Lincoln Gould said it was “wonderful” to see New Zealand books were popular.
“We look forward to seeing these and other Kiwi books flying off the shelves this Christmas.”
The top three books were children’s books.
Elsewhere, Annabel Langbein: The Free-range Cook was the top nonfiction title.
The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton, which won the 2013 Man Booker Prize, was top fiction title. However, it’s Hairy Maclary, Hercules Morse, Bottomley Potts, Muffin McLay, Bitzer Maloney, Schnitzel von Krumm and Scarface Claw who reign supreme.
We look forward to seeing these and other Kiwi books flying off the shelves in bookshops this Christmas. Lincoln Gould, Booksellers New Zealand