'Adult Harry Potter mania' greets Clinton memoirs

Hundreds of Bill Clinton fans queued outside bookstores across America today to get their hands on the former president’s hotly-anticipated autobiography.

Some lined up throughout the night, desperate to buy an early copy of the 957-page memoir My Life.

But the book has been roundly panned by the critics, with the New York Times calling it “sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull”.

Despite the poor reviews, the fans were not dissuaded.

Michael Link, a bookseller for Politics and Prose, a Washington-based store, described the response to the book’s publication as “like adult Harry Potter mania”.

A spokeswoman for Barnes and Noble bookstores said My Life was expected to become the best-selling presidential memoir in the company’s history.

Some two million advance copies have been ordered and Mr Clinton has received an advance of £5.5 million.

Margaret Woods, a billing consultant, was among about 100 people waiting outside a book shop which opened at midnight in New York City.

“It’s a historic moment for me,” she said.

The book recounts Mr Clinton’s life, from his days growing up with an alcoholic stepfather in Arkansas, to his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky during his presidency.

Mr Clinton said in a television interview in the US that he lost a battle with his “old demons” when he was unfaithful to his wife Hillary.

He also said he regretted not killing or capturing al Qaida terror leader Osama bin Laden or solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

During an interview with the BBC’s Panorama he became visibly angry when questioned repeatedly about his affair by David Dimbleby.

Mr Clinton said journalists had helped the “far right” by asking such questions.

Waving his finger he said: “And that’s why people like you always help the far right, because you like to hurt people, and you like to talk about how bad people are and all their personal failings.”

On the eve of publication Mr Clinton hosted a lavish party in Manhattan. He joked that despite his huge advance he spent so long writing that “by the time I finished this book I was just about down to minimum wage”.

But the memoir has been poorly received by the critics.

In a front page article the New York Times, called the book “sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull”.

Newsweek magazine called it “hardly an edge-of-your-seat experience”.

But booksellers said the reviews appeared to have had no impact on sales.