An early batch of Michael Wolff’s explosive new book on US president Donald Trump has sold out at Waterstones “in minutes”.
Fire And Fury’s release date was brought forward by four days to January 5, with publisher Henry Holt and Co citing “unprecedented demand”.
But with Amazon quoting an in-stock date of January 10, and many bookstores in the UK not expecting deliveries until next week, the small number of copies which landed at Waterstones Piccadilly on Friday “flew off the shelves in minutes”.
A spokeswoman for Waterstones told the Press Association: “We haven’t seen this level of interest in a political title in some time, and the media and customer interest in Fire And Fury in the UK, the US and elsewhere is indicative of the global fascination with President Trump and his administration.
“We are doing a brisk trade on Waterstones.com and we had a small but welcome early delivery to our Piccadilly shop today, all copies of which, unsurprisingly, flew off the shelves in minutes.”
Mr Wolff’s new book is drawn from what he said was regular access to the West Wing and more than 200 interviews, including some three hours with Mr Trump himself.
A small number of copies were at Waterstones Piccadilly on Friday (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
But the Republican president tweeted that the book was “full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist”. He wrote: “I authorised zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book.”
The author’s hotly anticipated new title is currently the number one bestselling book on Amazon’s UK site.
Waterstones added that select stores will have some stock of the book over the weekend, and that the company expects “to sell those with little hesitation”. It said that by Tuesday, all Waterstones stores should have copies of the title.