Christmas trading for the UK book market saw its strongest sales in 10 years, new figures have revealed.

Nielsen BookScan reports that a total of £83.3m worth of print books were sold in the run-up to Christmas, which marks the highest since 2007.

It is also suggested that sales in the UK print book market last year were up for the second year in a row, The Book Seller reports.

Little, Brown's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script by Jack Thorne was the biggest-selling book of last year, with sales of 1.45 million copies earning £15.8m.

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins, which was hailed as “the new Gone Girl”, was the biggest adult fiction title, selling 1.1 million copies for £5.3m.

Emily Blunt as Rachel Watson in the film adaptation of 'The Girl On The Train'

The book, published by Black Swan, was a word-of-mouth sensation which placed its author, a former financial journalist, in a spot on Forbes' yearly ranking of the richest writers in the world.

Booksellers Association CEO Tim Godfray said: “The graph for booksellers is starting to move up after a very difficult period.

“Thank heavens so many were ... wide of the mark when predicting the death of the physical bookshop and the demise of the printed book.