Curses! Why do more and more book covers feature swear words?

The days of ‘damn’ being considered a profanity are long gone, and these days the ‘f’ word is all over book shop shelves, albeit with an appropriately placed asterisk or three.

In fact, huge swears are all the rage when it comes to naming books – the more controversial the better.

According to analysis from Neilsen Book, the number of titles featuring ‘f**k’ has more than tripled, while those with ‘sh*t’ in the name have almost doubled.

Neilsen Book report that there were 181 titles last year that featured ‘f**k’, compared with 52 in 2015. Titles containing ‘sh*t’ went up from 49 to 93.

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Sweary titles aren’t restricted to one genre either – the trend is hitting all areas, with everything from cookery to colouring books getting in on the act.

Adult colouring books are a new trend in their own right, much loved for their calming qualities. One such example is Memos to Sh*tty People, a colouring book offering fed up adults an opportunity to “colour away your frustration with over 35 delightful and vulgar phrases you wish you’d said out loud”.

Each page includes “tension-busting phrases such as ‘Seriously, B*tch?'” to colour in “alongside friendly critters and intricite flora to calm your nerves”.

Swearing is also extremely popular in the naming of self-help books. Sarah Knight has penned two: The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k, which was an international bestseller, and Get Your Sh*t Together.

The Times notes that trend is likely to have kicked off with Alan McArthur and Steve Lowe’s Is it Just Me or is Everything Sh*t? which was released in 2005.