Brown book breaks record in hours

The Lost Symbol has a UK first print run of a million books
Dan Brown's follow-up to the Da Vinci Code has sold more copies in its first 36 hours of UK release than any other adult hardback novel, say publishers.

The Lost Symbol, which went on sale on Tuesday, has sold more than 300,000 copies in the UK, Transworld said.

The previous best-selling adult hardback was Thomas Harris' Hannibal, with some 700,000 copies bought in the UK when it was published in 1999.

Transworld said global sales of The Lost Symbol had already topped 1m.

Like The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol features Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, and had a UK first print run of a million.

The Da Vinci Code has sold 81 million copies around the world and is the UK's biggest-selling paperback of all time.

Transworld warned it was on the lookout for websites offering pirated copies of the new novel, after reports that two sites had already posted material from the book.

A spokeswoman said: "We have a very vigilant team who are constantly scanning the web to investigate potential piracy issues.

"If and when they do find any rogue material out there we will issue 'take down' notices."