Demonstrating that attempting to ban something is a great way to make that something hugely popular, publisher Henry Holt & Co reports that Michael Wolff ‘s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House sold 1.7 million copies in hardcover between 5-24 January. This makes it the biggest US hit since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 8.3 million copies in a day in 2007.
Fire and Fury had been scheduled to launch on 9 January, but when the White House sent the publisher a letter demanding they ‘immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination’ of both the book itself and of all excerpts and summaries thereof, Holt decided to release the title for immediate sale. Rights have since been sold to a further 35 countries and a TV adaptation is under negotiation.