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. 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. 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.