Potter is fastest selling book of all time

So who dies? The clamour to find out which character JK Rowling kills off in the latest Harry Potter story has made it the fastest selling book of all time, literally overnight.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released at midnight on Friday with events at bookshops across Britain and simultaneously all over the world. The 13 million copies printed so far are expected to make the author £30m.

Here booksellers reported "phenomenal" trade, with WH Smith estimating sales peaking at eight copies per second. The internet retailer Amazon shipped out more than a million pre-ordered copies yesterday. That figure alone easily beats first-day sales of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the previous fastest seller.Global sales of the Potter books are nearing 200 million, a figure surpassed only by the King James Bible.

Children at a publication-night party at an Edinburgh bookshop received a surprise visit from Ms Rowling, who said she was "desperate" to see the reaction of young readers.