Fans Make Their Plans for Harry Potter and the Final Act

Diehard fans will be planning just how they can get to the head of the queue at midnight on July 21 - named yesterday on JK Rowling's website as publication day for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the series.

Bookshops were braced for the now traditional witching hour scrum and at least one said it planned to set up a helpline for fans after Rowling warned that two characters die in the final instalment - and hinted that they are central figures.

Debbie Williams, of Waterstones, said: "This could be a similar moment to when Take That split up - there could be a lot of upset teenagers out there."

The most recent book, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, the sixth in the series, broke UK records by selling 2,009,574 copies on its first day of release. Booksellers are predicting that the Deathly Hallows might yet outstrip that figure.

It is 10 years since the first book, Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, was published. Since then the series has gone on to sell 325m copies worldwide and has been translated into 64 languages.

The first four books have been turned into successful films, with Daniel Radcliffe as the boy wizard. The film version of Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix will be released on July 13, making it a busy month for fans of the saga.

Online retailer amazon.co.uk began taking pre-orders for the final book on December 22. Christopher North, head of books, said July 21 would become Harry Potter Day all over the world. "Customer demand on the back of JK Rowling's announcement of the title back in December was incredible. At one point, the orders we received for the book were more than five times higher than those for the rest of the top 20 selling books combined," he said.

"Now that the publication date has been announced, we expect another massive surge of pre-orders from the UK public. It may be a long time before we see another book that commands as much anticipation, attention and demand as this final book in the Harry Potter series."

Waterstone's is also predicting a record-breaking rush for the book. "Not only will this be the biggest-selling book, it will also break all records to become the fastest-selling book of all time," said children's books manager Wayne Winstone.

The chain expects to sell half a million copies on the first day alone. "There are not many people who want to wait weeks to find out what happens and risk hearing the news from their friends," he said.

(SOURCE: GUARDIAN UNLIMITED)