With more than 200,000 copies of JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince pre-ordered from Amazon, the internet retailer has produced a list of UK's Potter hot-spots.

London has seen off a strong challenge from the north to claim the title of the Potter capital of Britain, with more books pre-ordered from Westminster, the City and Canary Wharf than anywhere else in the UK.

Newcastle upon Tyne followed up in second place, with Huddersfield in third and Pudsey, West Yorkshire (population 50,000) storming into fourth place in the race to secure a copy before its release on July 16.

"We're not surprised to see that London professionals are quickly securing their copies of the book," said Wendy Snowdon, senior books product manager of Amazon.co.uk. "It's just as likely that they want to be the first to read it on the train to work as it is that they are buying it for their children!"

"However, we are surprised to see the lack of other southern regions in the top 10 - there seems to be some kind of spell over the north!"

Potter top 10

1 London - Westminster, The City, Canary Wharf 2 Newcastle upon Tyne 3 Huddersfield (West Yorkshire) 4 Pudsey (West Yorkshire) 5 University of Warwick 6 Leeds 7 Rutland (Leicestershire) 8 University of Birmingham 9 University of York 10 Nottingham

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