Harry Potter enthusiasts have been flocking to bookshops to buy the script of new play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, after it went on sale at midnight on Sunday.
Waterstones in Glasgow was one of 150 stores to throw a party in celebration of the launch, which came just hours after the opening gala premiere at the Palace Theatre in London's West End.
READ MORE: JK Rowling hails fans for keeping Harry Potter And The Cursed Child secrets
Set 19 years after the events of the seventh and final book, The Cursed Child brings back Harry Potter, now grown up and an employee at the Ministry of Magic.
Harry and his wife Ginny Weasley wave their youngest son Albus Severus, named after former Hogwarts headmaster Professors Dumbledore and Potions guru Professor Snape, off to their old wizarding school.
READ MORE: JK Rowling hails fans for keeping Harry Potter And The Cursed Child secrets
Once there, Albus struggles with the weight of his family legacy and goes to extreme and dangerous lengths to right the wrongs of the past.
Hundreds queued outside Waterstones in Sauchiehall Street on Saturday night to be the first to buy a copy of the script.
Ian Owens, duty manager at Waterstones in Sauchiehall Street, said: “We hosted 150 people at a ticketed event which began at 10pm on Saturday, then at midnight we opened the doors to a queue of about 400 people who wanted to buy the book.”
READ MORE: JK Rowling hails fans for keeping Harry Potter And The Cursed Child secrets
Emily McTaggart, 18, from Airdrie, said: “I pre-ordered it months ago. I’ve been a fan since I was about 10-years-old. I was hooked right away and read all of the books in a month.”
Querida Hutchison, 21, from Clydebank, said: “I’ve read them all about six times. I’m looking forward to finding out what’s happened to the characters nineteen years on from where their story left off.”
READ MORE: JK Rowling hails fans for keeping Harry Potter And The Cursed Child secrets
Sue Wan, 24, from Glasgow, said: “I wanted to see the play first in London but I don’t think I can wait that long so I’ll probably read it right away.”
Nataliya Vasylyeva, 29, from Ukraine, said the books have international appeal.
“The ideas relate to all cultures, all nationalities,” she said. “I read them all in Russian when I was younger.”
READ MORE: JK Rowling hails fans for keeping Harry Potter And The Cursed Child secrets
The two-part play stretches over five hours and was co-devised by Scots author JK Rowling, 50, who arrived at the Palace Theatre on Saturday wearing a pair of £465 rose gold 'Chiara' butterfly wing stilettos.
She also wore a winding serpent ring similar to the snake-like symbol of the Slytherin House at Hogwarts.
As the play opened following nearly eight weeks of previews, it drew whoops, applause and gasps of shock from the audience as magic appeared to unfold on-stage.
READ MORE: JK Rowling hails fans for keeping Harry Potter And The Cursed Child secrets
Featuring plenty of twists and surprises, audience members were handed #KeepTheSecrets badges on their way out.
JK Rowling said she was pleased that fans who had seen previews had kept the details of the new instalment under wraps.
An hour after the launch of the book, a 10-year-old speed-reading prodigy had read it.
Toby L'Estrange, from Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, was challenged by Amazon to produce the first review of the new Potter story.
The schoolboy can read an average 400-page book in under two hours, using techniques he learned from his grandmother Susan Norman, a speed-reading expert.
Toby had his copy delivered direct to his Amazon Kindle by pre-order just after midnight on Sunday morning, and finished the book only 59 minutes after it automatically downloaded.
His review will be read by Amazon customers whether they are shopping on the website or on their Kindle.
Self-confessed superfan Toby read all the Harry Potter books by the age of eight and is able to recite all the spells used in the stories.
He gave the new book a six out of 10 and said: "It's a really good story.”
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