This page lists British-Asian authors that hit the Sunday Times Bestsellers List in 2020 (i.e. the top 10 books in a range of categories in a given week) along with the date they first hit the list.
Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King
Non-fiction Paperback, 12th Jan 2020
Feel Better In 5 by Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Manuals, 19th Jan 2020
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Fiction Hardback, 16th Feb 2020
How to Argue With a Racist by Adam Rutherford
Non-fiction Hardback, 1st Mar 2020
The Day We Met The Queen by Onjali Q Raúf
Children’s, 29th Mar 2020
Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed
Non-fiction Paperback, 12th Apr 2020
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Raúf
Children’s, 14th Jun 2020
The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant
Fiction Hardback, 28th Jun 2020
The Doctor Will See You Now by Dr Amir Khan
Non-fiction Hardback, 30th Aug 2020
The 21-Day Immunity Plan by Dr Aseem Malhotra
Non-fiction Paperback, 6th Sep 2020
Nadiya Bakes by Nadiya Hussain
Manuals, 13th Sep 2020
Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty
Non-fiction Hardback, 20th Sep 2020
Dare to Be You by Matthew Syed
Children’s, 4th Oct 2020
How the numbers stack up: There were 2,340 spots on the bestseller list in 2020. These were occupied by 478 authors. With the caveat that author nationality and ethnicity data were gathered from online and not primary sources, 348 of those writers are British. Of those, 11 are British-Asian. Based on UK population data, this number should be 24, which indicates an under-representation by 55%.
Notes
- We use the Oxford English Dictionary definition of British Asian: a British person of South Asian origin or descent, where South Asia is defined as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
- We only include authors that are named on the cover.
- Nationality and ethnicity data have been collected from author websites where available, and media interviews or Wikipedia profiles where not.
- ONS data (.xls) suggest that Asians comprise 7% of the UK population.