BBC News Online: World: Europe

Asterix back in the bookshops

The latest adventure of the French comic strip heroes, Asterix and Obelix, has been published today Wednesday across Europe.

It's the first time in five years that the two Gallic heroes have pitted their wits, and their magic potion, against their Roman occupiers, and the new book comes forty years after their original adventure.

Throughout their home country, France, fans have been packing bookstores to get their hands on Asterix and Latraviata, in which Asterix is bewitched by a seductive Roman actress. Many couldn't even wait to get home to read the story, but sat down in the bookshop to catch up. The Asterix adventures have become one of the biggest publishing phenomena, selling over three-hundred-million copies in almost a-hundred countries.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service