Connery sets festival's sell-out record

The launch event for Sir Sean Connery's first book has set a sell-out record for the Edinburgh Literary Festival.

All tickets for Sir Sean's appearance went within an hour of going on sale – the fastest the festival has ever experienced.

Hundreds of fans even queued up outside the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in the early hours of Friday morning.

The James Bond actor will launch autobiography Being A Scot at the festival on August 25.

"This year, we have invested a significant amount of time, staff and financial resource to develop a system to cope with the demand and we are delighted that we have been able to deal with so many customers satisfactorily," said event director Catherine Lockerbie.

"We know that due to the extraordinary demand a large number of potential customers are finding it difficult to get through on the phone or via the internet, and would ask them to be patient and keep trying."