Bloomsbury comes up with the answers

Bloomsbury said the win was helping the book gain increasing worldwide fame, while it is also seeing popularity soar for Eat, Love and Pray by Elizabeth Gilbert following the release of the film version featuring Julia Roberts.

The group outlined a strong second half line-up that it expects will help offset a 48 per cent fall in profits during the first six months.

Next month's relaunch of the Harry Potter series designed to tie in with the keenly-awaited movie of the final book is expected to drive sales, as is an "exceptionally" strong programme for its professional titles amid a raft of Government changes to tax rules.

Bloomsbury said: "Overall, business is performing well for the group."

However, it stressed the full-year result was "still dependent on the level of consumer and business-to-business demand between now and the end of the financial year".

The group reported a sharp fall in interim pre-tax profits to 949,000 against 1.8m a year earlier after a tough second quarter, dominated by uncertainties surrounding the General Election and emergency Bud-get.

Analysts at Numis Securities believe the final six months will counteract the drop, forecasting a 4 per cent rise in annual pre-tax profits to 8m.

They also put faith in Bloomsbury's expansion plans, with the publisher looking to take advantage of the rise in popularity of e-books, as well as further acquisitions in strategically important areas.

Numis analysts said: "We believe that the group is both well positioned to benefit from structural change in digital publishing and, in the short term, an uplift in sales from film releases of Bloomsbury titles."