This page lists British-Asian authors that have hit the Sunday Times Bestsellers List in 2021 (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, 3rd Jan 2021
Feel Great Lose Weight by Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Manuals, 10th Jan 2021
All On The Board by Jeremy Chopra and Ian Redpath
Non-fiction Hardback, 17th Jan 2021
Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty
Non-fiction Hardback, 17th Jan 2021
Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera
Non-fiction Hardback, 7th Feb 2021
How to Grow Up and Feel Amazing! by Dr Ranj Singh and David O’Connell
Children’s, 28th Feb 2021
Healing Is the New High by Vex King
Non-Fiction Paperback, 25th Apr 2021
The Right Sort of Girl by Anita Rani
Non-fiction Hardback, 18th Jul 2021
Spike: The Virus vs. The People by Jeremy Farrar and Anjana Ahuja
Non-fiction Hardback, 1st Aug 2021
The Doctor Will See You Now by Dr Amir Khan
Non-fiction Paperback, 15th Aug 2021
The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan
Non-fiction Hardback, 29th Aug 2021
Being You by Anil Seth
Non-fiction Hardback, 12th Sep 2021
Redhanded by Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire
Non-fiction Hardback, 26th Sep 2021
How the numbers stack up: There were 1,800 spots on the bestseller list as of 3rd October 2021. These were occupied by 498 authors. With the caveat that author nationality and ethnicity data were gathered from online and not primary sources, 361 of those authors are British. Of those, 12 are British-Asian. Based on UK population data, this number should be 25, which indicates an under-representation by 53%. As a comparison, in 2020, there was 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.