Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey gives UK poetry sales an epic boost

UK poetry sales are on course to reach a record high this year, buoyed by the success of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.Poetry sales surpassed £8m during the first 30 weeks of 2026, an increase of 13.3% on the same period last year, according to data from market researchers NielsenIQ.The category is expected to exceed £15m in annual sales for the first time since accurate records began and could reach £17m if its current momentum continues through the autumn.Homer’s 2,700-year-old epic poem has accounted for a significant share of this year’s growth after Nolan’s adaptation – starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Anne Hathaway – brought the ancient Greek epic to a new audience. UK print sales of The Odyssey increased by 1,400% in the four weeks to 25 July compared with the same period in 2025, after the film’s release in the middle of the month.Editions of The Odyssey and The Iliad have generated £980,000 in poetry sales so far this year – equivalent to £1.20 of every £10 spent on poetry books in Britain.Nolan’s adaptation stormed the global box office, taking $264m (£198m) during its opening weekend, marking the director’s best ever opening.The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily WilsonHomer could now challenge the record for the highest annual sales by a poet in the UK. The current benchmark was set by Canadian poet and Instagram sensation Rupi Kaur, whose books, such as 2015 hit Milk and Honey, generated £1.2m through NielsenIQ BookScan’s Total Consumer Market in 2017.The Nolan effect is also being felt in the US. Print sales across all editions of The Odyssey are up 76% so far this year, according to Circana BookScan figures.But the poetry boom extends well beyond ancient epic. Even when sales of The Odyssey and The Iliad are removed from this year’s and last year’s figures, the category is still up 7.2% and remains on course for its best year. The three years from 2023 to 2025 were the category’s most lucrative on record.Much of this has been driven by more commercial, social media-friendly poets. Scottish writer Donna Ashworth remains Britain’s bestselling living poet of the decade, with her 2025 collection To the Women selling almost 34,000 copies this year. However some traditionalists have questioned whether her uplifting, aphoristic work is poetry or self-help.“The poetry sector was already enjoying an upwards trajectory before Chris Nolan tackled The Odyssey, helped in recent years by the popularity of Instapoets, including Rupi Kaur, repositioning the poetry sector from a more academic category into a lifestyle, gift and self-development genre,” said Philip Stone at NielsenIQ.The year’s breakout poetry bestseller is from the London-based actor and poet Lucas Jones, whose debut collection, I Still Believe in Miracles, is 2026’s bestselling poetry title by value, generating £400,000, according to the Bookseller.Classicist Emily Wilson’s acclaimed 2017 translation has been the main beneficiary of The Odyssey’s surge in sales.Wilson herself made headlines last week when she criticised the film, saying “it has nothing convincing to say” and that it “lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth”.In a scathing article for the London Review of Books, she wrote: “Nolan’s Odyssey lacks many of the elements that make the poem great … The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”She added: “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”Audiobook versions of The Odyssey have also experienced renewed interest: Stephen Fry’s reading has entered Spotify’s UK audiobook top 10, while Ian McKellen’s narration has appeared in the equivalent US chart.