HMV, the music chain and owner of Waterstone’s, gave warning yesterday that shoppers’ appetite for books was waning amid weakening consumer confidence – and pinpointed celebrity autobiographies as the weakest end of the market.

Simon Fox, chief executive of HMV, said: “Sales of these books are down just over 5 per cent over the last five to six weeks.”

Waterstone’s recently began a half-price sale on celebrity books such as Parky by Michael Parkinson, Stephen Fry In America and Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson.

HMV reported that sales at its Waterstone’s book stores fell by 3.1 per cent in the 26 weeks to October 25. Taking into account sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in JK Rowling’s series, sales fell by 1.4 per cent over the period.

HMV admitted that, since the end of October, trading had deteriorated again, adding: “The markets in which we operate have weakened in line with general consumer confidence.” Overall, the group said that pretax losses during the first six months of the year narrowed from £28.7 million to £27.5 million. Like-for-like sales at HMV’s music shops rose 1.6 per cent, with operating losses narrowing by £400,000 to £12.7 million.

HMV was optimistic about the crucial Christmas period, and conceded that it could benefit from Woolworths exit, by increasing HMV’s share of the book, DVD and music market.

The retailer said: “Over the last two weeks there have been unprecedented changes to the competitive landscape of the entertainment sector, which we believe will strengthen HMV UK for the medium term.”

Freddie George, analyst at Seymour Pierce, said: “Short term, the company will benefit from the demise of Woolworths and from the impact of Woolworths’ EUK [Entertainment UK, its wholesale arm] being liquidated on companies such as competitor, Zavvi. However, there is the long-term . . . concern that downloading will take ever greater sales of DVDs and CDs.”

HMV closed down 3¼p, or 2.9 per cent, at 107¾p yesterday.

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