Wilson named top pick amongst library goers

Jacqueline Wilson has been named as the current most popular library author amongst UK lenders.

Her books were lent lent 16 million times by British public libraries in the 10 years to June 2009 – or almost 5,000 times a day.

Figures of library lending also show that her best known work, The Story of Tracy Beaker was the most borrowed individual title of the decade

Library users have not taken Dan Brown to their hearts, despite the fact that the creator of The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol was the second biggest-selling author of the last decade.

In the last year (2008-09), Brown languished in 351st place in the library lending stakes – trounced by lesser-known writers such as Ian Whybrow, author of Harry and the Bucket Full of Dinosaurs, in 11th place; and Fiona Wyatt, author of titles including That's Not My Teddy and Brrm Brrmm, in 18th.

Besides the obvious domination of the lending market by children's authors, romantic fiction and thrillers are the other types of book which are heavily borrowed.

The figures were compiled by Public Lending Right, the organisation established by Parliament to pay authors a small fee every time one of their books is borrowed.

The most lent authors of the last decade (numbers of times books lent in brackets)

1. Jacqueline Wilson (16 million)
2. Danielle Steel (14 million)
3. Catherine Cookson (14 million)
4. Josephine Cox (13 million)
5. James Patterson (11 million)
6. RL Stine (10 million)
7. Mick Inkpen (10 million)
8. Janet & Allan Ahlberg (9 million)
9. Roald Dahl (8 million)
10. Agatha Christie (8 million)