Excitement was followed by disappointment for millions of children - and many booksellers - last year when J.K. Rowling revealed that although she had written a Harry Potter prequel, she would release only seven copies of it.

However, in a feat of transfiguration worthy of the boy wizard himself, it was announced yesterday that the book of fairytales, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, would go on sale after all, in time for Christmas.

Within hours of the announcement of a December publication, the hype that surrounded the Harry Potter novels and films was building and Amazon began to take advance orders. Extracts, spoilers and offers of a collector's edition also appeared online. It had been thought that the book, written a few months after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final in the series, would never be published.

Rowling had released seven handmade editions last year, auctioning one for charity and giving the others to friends who supported her through the 17 years that it took to complete the Harry Potter series. She said yesterday: “There was understandable disappointment among Harry Potter fans when only one copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard was offered to the public last December.

“I am therefore delighted to announce that, thanks to the generous support of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon - and with the blessing of the wonderful people who own the other six original books - The Tales of Beedle the Bard will now be widely available to all Harry Potter fans.” The release of the title will be a stroke of magic for Rowling's publisher Bloomsbury, with fans still lapping up anything related to her boy wizard.

With no new Harry Potter titles to follow, there had been speculation that the company was worried about whether it could continue to grow.

The Tales were a central part of the final Harry Potter book. Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, bequeathed a volume containing five wizard fairytales to Harry's friend, Hermione Granger. It offered clues to help Harry to defeat his great enemy, Lord Voldemort.

The book, illustrated by the author, will raise money for children in residential institutions. The news was announced to coincide with the birthdays of Harry Potter and his creator, who turned 43 yesterday. A handwritten edition of The Tales fetched £1.95million in December, becoming the most expensive modern book sold at auction.

While Amazon bought the work at the London sale, Rowling's fans were not able to get their hands on their own copy or even read the stories.

The author said: “The new edition will include The Tales themselves, translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, and with illustrations by me, but also notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters' Archive.”

The Tales contains five stories, The Tale of the Three Brothers, The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock's Hairy Heart, The Wizard and the Hopping Pot and Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump. Only The Tale of the Three Brothers was published in the final Potter book.

The Children's High Level Group (CHLG), set up by Rowling and the MEP Emma Nicholson to campaign for children's rights, particularly in Eastern Europe, will receive all profits from the book. Three editions of the tales, all in English, will be published. The Bloomsbury and Scholastic editions will feature additional commentary on each tale from Dumbledore and an introduction by Rowling.

While those books will be sold for £6.99, Amazon will produce up to 100,000 copies of a collector's edition, replicating the look of Rowling's original, for £50 each. The book will be published on December 4.

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