After JK Rowling's recent book The Casual Vacation received a strong sales start, Jamie Oliver's Recipe Book has taken over the book to top Christmas sales this year.

After Harry Potter JK Rowling's recent novel "The Casual Vacation" received grave reviews and was off to a flying start where sales were concerned. However, with the festive seasoning drawing nearer, Jamie Oliver's Recipe Book "15-Minutes Meals" is all set to top the list of Book sales this year.

Jon Howells at Waterstones had earlier predicted that Oliver would take his fifth Christmas number one later this year. "He's our bet for number one," said Howells. "It's inevitable that he would beat JK Rowling. Traditionally she sells masses in the first day, the first week, the first month, and then she will still sell well but it slows down. With Jamie Oliver, though, he'll be slow at the start and continue to build. People don't rush out to buy the new Jamie the first week of release - he builds more gradually and it becomes a landslide."

Howells said that Miranda Hart's Is It Just Me, which sold 36,169 copies last week, was also exceeding expectations, while Rod Stewart's autobiography, which sold 26,417 copies last week, was heading the rock memoirs pack. "None of that should take away from JK though - The Casual Vacancy has performed brilliantly, but Christmas is about non-fiction," said Howells.

At independent chain Foyles, meanwhile, Jonathan Ruppin said that The Casual Vacancy was still "comfortably ahead" of 15-Minute Meals, "but Bring Up the Bodies looks like it'll be our best-selling fiction title - it's been in our top 10 fiction ever since it came out". In non-fiction, Ruppin predicted that "Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi will probably be our bestselling non-fiction title although Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries II may also outsell Jamie".