Lord of the books: final Harry Potter novel to rule them all

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, written by billionaire author JK Rowling sent fans into a flutter and proved that the pastime of reading is still well and truly alive.

"The publication day exceeded all expectations," said a spokesman from Allen and Unwin, who publish the series in Australia.

"An amazing team, including printers, web developers, travel agents, media outlets and, yes, lawyers, worked behind the scenes for months to make the magic happen."

In the lead up to the book's publication, details of the story and production were kept top secret. Now on the shelves of most bookstores and readily available, behind-the-scenes information on the book is still being kept hush-hush.

Griffin Press, who printed the book, declined to speak about the process involved. Allen and Unwin said that so far it had only anecdotal information about the book's sales and that statistics usually arrive from Neilsen Bookscan one week after publication.

"All comments from booksellers so far however point to record numbers," said the spokesman.

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