E.L. James has released her new novel, Grey, that re-tells the events of Fifty Shades of Grey from the perspective of its antagonist, Christian Grey.

The new book could make the author even richer as stores scramble to order enough copies for fans.

Based on “unprecedented” pre-order figures, it is thought the book could achieve a similar level of success to the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, with more than 20 million copies sold worldwide.

Tom Tivnan, features and insight editor of The Bookseller, told The Guardian: “Fifty Shades of Grey is the biggest-selling book in Britain since records began, so even if the new book can manage only 20 per cent of what that sold, she will still sell almost a million copies.

“So, this is a huge, huge deal for Penguin Random House. I think we can comfortably say it will be the biggest book of the year, no problem.”

There are a number of scenes in the first book which fans are begging to be told by Christian’ Greys perspective, including his first meeting with Anastasia Steele and the night he randomly turned up at a night club to save her after she drunk dialed him.

Grey has been released on Christian Grey’s official birthday.