Sunday Times Bestsellers, Week of October 26, 2026: Alice Cooper’s No. 1 Jump

Chart update: Sunday, October 25, 2026. The Sunday Times Books page carried a current bestseller headline, “Alice Cooper jumps to No. 1,” as the editorial week of October 26 began. The headline makes Devil on My Shoulder: A Memoir the clearest confirmed leader in this update. The Times’ public chart page does not show the complete ranking rows, so the available evidence supports a focused chart brief rather than a full top ten.

That distinction matters for anyone looking for both the top books and new entries. The official Times headline confirms a move to the No. 1 slot, but its public version does not show the chart category, the preceding rank, the complete list, or the labels used to mark first-time entries. Those missing fields cannot be filled by carrying forward an older chart or by guessing from another list. The article below keeps the confirmed result separate from details that are not visible.

What the current headline confirms

The Times’ Books section links to its weekly bestseller feature under the headline “The Sunday Times Bestsellers List — Alice Cooper jumps to No 1.” That is a clear upward movement in the ranking covered by the feature. The public headline does not name the category or state the number of places climbed, so this article does not assign a format, category, or previous position to Cooper’s book.

The book is Devil on My Shoulder: A Memoir, published by Ebury Spotlight. The Times’ review describes it as a 445-page memoir about Cooper’s life in music and the construction of his theatrical stage persona. This context helps identify the title behind the chart headline; a review, however, is not evidence of a chart rank. The verified chart claim is the No. 1 jump reported by The Times itself.

How the Sunday Times chart is measured

The Sunday Times’ weekly bestseller charts use sales data supplied by NielsenIQ BookData through BookScan. NielsenIQ describes BookScan as a continuous monitor of print-book retail sales, using electronic point-of-sale data collected from tills and dispatch systems. Its monitored outlets include high-street and online bookstores, supermarkets, museums, specialist retailers, and independent bookstores. NielsenIQ also states that it supplies weekly bestseller charts to The Sunday Times in the UK.

This method gives the chart a useful signal: it ranks books by observed retail sales in a defined reporting period, rather than by reader polls, library borrowing, critic ratings, or online attention. The chart therefore helps answer what people bought during that period. It does not, by itself, tell you whether a book will suit your taste, how many people finished it, or how strong its lifetime sales will be. NielsenIQ describes its BookScan service as a measure of print retail sales; its public description treats digital book reporting as a separate service.

The October 25 public display does not reveal the exact start and end dates of the sales window behind this particular update. The editorial label “week of October 26” is the date for this article, not proof that the measured sales ran from one specific Monday through Sunday. Keeping those dates separate avoids presenting the publication date as the sales period.

What to look for in the full list

A “new entry” means a title has appeared in a particular chart for the first time in the reporting sequence. It does not necessarily mean the book was published that same week: a newly released edition, a change in format, or a later rise in demand can also affect when a title appears. The entry marker is most useful alongside the chart category, rank, and sales window. Without those fields, calling a book a new entry would overstate what the public update shows.

When the full table is available, compare titles within the same category and format. A hardback list and a paperback list describe different buying patterns, and positions across those lists are not interchangeable. Then check whether a title is rising, holding, or falling over successive weeks, and note “weeks in chart” or sales totals only when the chart provides them. A sudden jump can signal a release-week surge or a campaign effect, but rank alone cannot establish the cause.

For readers choosing their next book, use the chart as a shortlist rather than a quality verdict. Start with the title’s subject or genre, then consult a description, a sample, or a review to decide whether it fits. A bestseller position is a strong measure of recent sales performance within its list; it is not a promise that every reader will enjoy the book.

Sources and reporting limits

The publication date for this update is Sunday, October 25, 2026, one day before the recurring editorial period dated October 26. The official Times chart page provides the weekly feature and its headline, while the public-facing version available for this report does not expose the complete rankings or new-entry labels. For that reason, no additional title is listed as a chart leader or newcomer.

Read the official Times Books page and its Sunday Times bestseller feature. See NielsenIQ BookScan’s measurement description for the retail data method, and The Times’ review of Alice Cooper’s memoir for the book details.