Atwood greeted by cheers at Testaments midnight Waterstones launch

Margaret Atwood officially launched her follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments (Chatto & Windus), to cheers of delight at a packed-out Waterstones Piccadilly last night.

Crowds lucky enough to get a ticket gathered from the early evening to get their hands on the hotly-awaited, Booker-shortlisted novel – hyped as the literary event of the year - when it went on sale at midnight.

Atwood, flanked by Pearl Girls, held the audience spellbound as she read the new novel’s opening, with its increasingly well-known first line: “Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while still alive."

The Canadian writer was headlining a festival-style evening of panel discussions and readings at the flagship store, with activities across all six floors. The evening kicked off with a group of Handmaidens in signature red and white moving through the street outside the store, lined by crowds and phone camera flashes.

In the run-up to the event, Atwood's big launch had been slightly overshadowed by news that Amazon in the US had sent out copies a week before it was due to go on sale, but the blunder didn't dampen spirits on the night as Atwood fans queued around the block to get their hands on a copy of The Testaments. 

Inside, Waterstones staff with "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" written on the backs of their Testaments tops sold books or helped people find events taking place on all six floors of the bookshop while more Handmaidens greeted guests with "Blessed be the fruit".

Waterstones fiction buyer Bea Carvalho told The Bookseller: “It's definitely the biggest event for a long time and it's one of the most ambitious events we've ever put together.”

Carvalho compared it to the launch of big Harry Potter titles, but said: “The big draw for this which those ones didn't have is we've got Margaret Atwood here this evening. Were so thrilled that she's in the UK for this. It's a huge thing for Waterstones and we are very proud to be hosting her.

“People have been waiting for this book for 30-odd years so we wanted to give it a launch that befits that excitement and anticipation.”

The chain has had more than 10,000 pre-orders for the book and has stocked “many tens of thousands” more ready for publication day. Tickets for the launch event sold-out almost immediately, with just 400 people getting hold of one.

One of them was Atwood fan Ayman Khwaja, who has read The Handmaid's Tale on many occasions since she was a teenager. She said: "I think a lot of us have been waiting for the sequel.

"Margaret Atwood's writing is so poignant that everything she felt in this world 30 years ago is probably more prevalent now then it's ever been."

She added: "Tonight's been brilliant. They've done a great job, though the handmaidens are quite creepy, I'm not going to lie."

Dr Barbara Reynolds, a retired university lecturer from north London, was queuing to see Atwood read. She said: "She was very prescient in 1985. I just think she's a great writer and this looked like a fun evening with lots going on and it’s a way to celebrate this new book."

She went on: "It’s really good that these are the kind of things bookshops are doing to win the war against Kindle and digital, drawing people in as book lovers. You can see people are buying different books tonight. Bookshops are transforming themselves by holding events like this."

During the course of the night, Atwood’s work was celebrated by an author panel, Elif Shafak, A M Homes, Neil Gaiman, Temi Oh and Jeanette Winterson, against a backdrop of blue and green drapes – the colours of the book cover.

Shafak, a fellow Booker nominee who led the discussion, called Atwood "a literary giant, a woman who has inspired so many of us".

Winterson described her as an author whose story was necessary on the night when Parliament had been prorogued. "These stories need to be told otherwise we fall into the same error," she said.

She went on: "She was right to do this now because we did need to know what happens next, in the sense that next is what happened in our past."

Gaiman told The Bookseller: "This feels like something very special. I've had huge launches but this feels more like the kind of madness that you get when you move into the world of television and so forth. When the Amazon Prime Video premier of Good Omens was at the Odeon Leicester Square it was a full size West End premier for a book that had become a television series. That was astonishing, the idea that you can make something have that much peculiar cultural impact. But I love that this is happening. “

He added: "When The Handmaid's Tale came out people weren't sure whether it was science fiction or not. Now we're here in the future looking back at a book published 30 something years ago and going 'oh, this was actually not only a fine and solid work of predictive social science fiction, it has not dated or aged. It's a work that feels utterly relevant when often science fictional futures go off faster than last month's yoghurt."

Harnessing the novel’s political spirit, there were also “soapbox moments” from activists and poets including Caroline Criado Perez, Charly Cox, Sonny Hall and Gina Martin.

As the night ticked on there was even the chance for fans to try their hand at embroidery and placard-making, accompanied by bright green cocktails.

Faye Brewster, from Vintage, said:  “It’s been an incredible evening, such a celebratory event. There’s been a growing sense of anticipation tonight as the fans have been moving around the in-store events, building up to Margaret reading from The Testaments, and the books going onsale at midnight. 

She added: "It's so rare to have a book that, for over 30 years, has been read and studied and has grown in relevance and stature, informing political debate around the world. To have a sequel that feels so relevant and answers so many questions that people have is extraordinary. Margaret is writing at the height of her powers.”

The event is part of a feverish publicity campaign by the 79-year-old author, who will mark today’s publication with a press conference at the British Library. This morning she was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme and this evening she will appear at a sold-out National Theatre event with Samira Ahmed and Lily James, being live-streamed to cinemas around the globe. A nationwide tour takes place next month. The latest review of the book, by Anne Enright writing in the Guardian, dubs it "dazzling."