Ambassador to present Potter book to first Thai customer

Britain’s ambassador to Thailand will have to get up early tomorrow morning.

Ambassador David Fall has been recruited to present Thailand’s first official copy of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows to a lucky customer at 6.01am in the Thai capital Bangkok, at a shopping centre done up for the Hogwarts-loving crowd.

King’s Cross Station’s Platform 9 3/4 has been re-created outside the Emporium Shopping Complex, where more than 600 Potter look-alikes, young and old, are expected to snake their way through hauntingly long lines to get their own copy.

More than 10,000 copies of the seventh volume have been pre-ordered by Potter fans through the local Asia Books chain, according to Sirote Jiraprayoon, its assistant managing director of sales and marketing.