Crowds camp out overnight for Hillary Clinton book tour

She is not Madonna or Britney Spears, but she has a summer-long tour that will take her to every corner of the United States. Her first appearance in New York City suggested that her fans are hungry and legion. They camped out overnight on the pavement and donned wristbands for the right to see her.

This new American star is none other than former first lady and current New York Senator, Hillary Clinton. Her hit song is all in the written word - the 562 pages of Living History, her long-awaited memoirs, which came out yesterday. Her publicity campaign, orchestrated by the publisher Simon & Schuster, started well. When numbers became overwhelming outside the Barnes & Noble bookshop on Fifth Avenue yesterday morning, wristbands were issued to the first 250 people in line. "I'm a big fan of Hillary's and Bill's," said Greg Packer, who was the first in line, arriving at 9pm on Sunday. Mr Packer, 39, a road maintenance worker, planned to buy two books because Mrs Clinton "has a lot to say". After her Fifth Avenue debut, she heads tomorrow to more proletarian territory - a Wal-Mart store near Washington DC.

Hopes are running high for the book. An astounding 1 million copies have been printed for the first run. The manager at Barnes & Noble said he was confident that Living History would be the fastest-selling non-fiction book of the year. Mrs Clinton received an advance of $8m for her memoir.

Media hype has so far focused on passages recalling her marital troubles in the White House and especially her agony on discovering that her husband had lied to the world - and her - over his relationship with the former intern Monica Lewinsky before he finally confessed.

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, she voiced confidence in her marriage, saying: "... I hope we'll grow old together."