Hundreds of Madonna fans spent the best part of 24 hours queuing outside a central London store in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Queen of Pop as she made a rare public appearance to promote her new children's book.
 But only 250 of them who were first in line were lucky enough to bag tickets for the reading and signing of her fourth book The Adventures of Abdi.
 Crowds gathered on the streets outside the Selfridges store on London's Oxford Street to see the former Material Girl but she snuck in through an underground car park entrance.
 The new tale - like her previous books - is said to be based on the ancient Jewish faith Kabbalah which the millionaire pop star and her film director husband Guy Ritchie both follow.
 Madonna, who is regularly photographed by the paparazzi in the red string bracelet worn by Kabbalah devotees, has reportedly come under fire for highlighting the religion in her children's books.
 Part of the sales from her book reportedly go to fund Kabbalah centres she attends.
 The singer was today giving a 10 - minute reading from the book, which was officially released in the UK at the start of this week, to a group of 30 schoolchildren aged eight to 10 from St Winifred's Catholic Junior School in south London.
 She has already penned her fifth book Lotsa de Casha, which will be released next summer and is about how wealth is overrated.
 The illustrated yarn features the Italian greyhound Lotsa de Casha who is the richest creature in the world but is desperately unhappy.