--- source_url: "https://vintage-books.org/2026/05/11/books-in-the-media-douglas-stuarts-latest-leaves-shuggie-bain-in-its-shadow/" title: "Books in the Media: Douglas Stuart’s latest ‘leaves Shuggie Bain in its shadow’" generated_at: 2026-11-02T07:21:29Z host: vintage-books.org type: post generator: ael-42a/1.2.0 --- # Books in the Media: Douglas Stuart’s latest ‘leaves Shuggie Bain in its shadow’ When we last looked at the sales scene in Scotland, we discovered that Scottish readers bought slightly more than expected – they were responsible for 8.3% of the UK’s total sales across the first 12 weeks of 2025, according to NielsenIQ BookScan’s Total Consumer Market (TCM). By the end of 2025, Scottish customers – who account for 8% of the total UK population – had managed to push that number up to 8.7% (for both volume and value), a slightly higher share of the year’s haul than they achieved in 2024. Volume in 2025 was down 1.5% in Scotland compared to the year before – but the UK in total saw its volume drop 2.5% – while value grew 0.3% versus a slip of 0.5% across the four home nations combined. ![](https://i0.wp.com/vintage-books.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-1.png?resize=728%2C429&ssl=1)Things are looking even better for Scottish bookshops a third of the way into 2026: across the first 16 weeks they have sold 4,464,783 books, up 0.4% compared to the equivalent period in 2025. Meanwhile, value in the same period has reached £41.2m, up 2.2%. Not only is that a good position year-on-year, but against a national backdrop where volume sales have shrunk 1.7% and value has grown 0.9%, it shows very positive signs for the bookselling scene here. The bestselling book in Scotland across the first 16 weeks of 2026 matches the rest of the UK: *Bunny* *vs Monkey: Total Chaos!*, Jamie Smart’s World Book Day (WBD) offering has sold 14,392 copies in Scotland, performing slightly above average as it claims 8.7% of the £1 book’s total sales. WBD (£1) has, predictably, done as well in Scotland as it has in the rest of the UK, with Scottish bookshops taking 8.4% of the campaign’s total sales, a very slight increase on 2025’s performance. ### Share this: - [ Share on X (Opens in new window) X](https://vintage-books.org/2026/05/11/books-in-the-media-douglas-stuarts-latest-leaves-shuggie-bain-in-its-shadow/?share=twitter) - [ Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook](https://vintage-books.org/2026/05/11/books-in-the-media-douglas-stuarts-latest-leaves-shuggie-bain-in-its-shadow/?share=facebook) - ### Like this: Like Loading…