Jamie Oliver 'Britain's biggest author'

Jamie Oliver was Britain's biggest-selling author of 2008, new figures have shown.

Statistics from Bookseller.com reveal a 20% rise in sales of the celebrity chef's books compared with the previous year.

Shoppers bought £11.5 million of Oliver books in 2008, with sales driven by last year's release of Jamie's Ministry Of Food and the continued success of 2007's Jamie At Home.

Oliver beat A Thousand Splendid Suns author Khaled Hosseini into second place. The top five was filled out by James Patterson, J.K. Rowling and fellow chef Delia Smith.

"Star power, in many guises, was the way to the top of the author of the year charts for 2008," the website said.