Whether they disappear under the sofa, left on a train or just outright stolen, library books in Wandsworth tend to go missing at a staggering rate.

Through a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Wandsworth Times, it was found that between 2016-18, 21,716 books have gone missing. This works out to about 20 books or library items a day across the entire borough.

Of these titles, the most frequently occurring are The BFG by Roald Dahl and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling. A total of 18 copies of each are either missing or overdue.

According to borrowing figures from the public service accountancy body CIPFA, Wandsworth residents borrowed the second highest number of books in London – 1,414, 828. In terms of the amount of children’s books issued - again this was the second highest amount in London.

A Wandsworth Council spokesman said: “Unfortunately books going missing or not being returned is a problem throughout all London libraries and Wandsworth is no different to anywhere else. As we have 11 libraries across the borough the figures over the last five years equate to one book per day, per library. However the library service as a whole lends close to 1.5m books every year, and lent 753,991 children’s books in the last year alone. According to the Cipfa annual statistics we had the second highest number of borrowing rates for books in London which shows that our libraries are thriving.

“There has also been a lot of investment to enhance our library buildings themselves, including improvements to Battersea, Earlsfield, Tooting and York Gardens libraries, and work is currently underway on the new Wandsworth Town library; so despite the odd missing book, our residents know Wandsworth has some of the best library facilities in London.”

J K Rowling was not available for a comment at this time.