The official launch of the book is at the National Library of Scotland tomorrow, where a group of Edinburgh school children will attend a tea party hosted by Rowling. But bookshops across the country are opening at midnight to cater for fans desperate to get their hands on a copy of Beedle the Bard. The 128-page book is already known to Potter enthusiasts as the volume which Hogwart's headmaster Albus Dumbledore left to Hermione Granger in the final Potter novel.

"We expect it to crash into the number one slot tomorrow and it will be very difficult to dislodge it this side of Christmas," said Waterstone's spokesman Jon Howells. "It would take magic of Voldemort proportions to kick it off the number one slot."

Waterstone's is opening its flagship London Piccadilly branch from 10pm this evening, with 400 fans flying in from Australia, New Zealand, America and Europe to attend the event. The store is to feature a live Mugglenet podcast, magical entertainment and Harry Potter characters for fans to meet. Waterstone's branches across the UK will also open early tomorrow morning for children to buy the book before school.

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The Tales of Beedle the Bard contains five stories which helped Harry Potter to destroy Voldemort. The Tale of the Three Brothers is the only story to have been recounted previously, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the remaining four - The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock's Hairy Heart, The Wizard and the Hopping Pot and Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump -- unseen until now.