Celebrity Meerkat Aleksandr Orlov to Make First Live Appearance in Harrods

Aleksandr Orlov, the meerkat who shot to fame through the 2009 comparethemarket.com advertising campaign, will make his first ever 'live' appearance to launch his new collection of books, Meerkat Tales, at Harrods.

The 'entrepreneur' will appear via live satellite link at the London store from his family mansion today. He will give a reading from one of the books in his new collection.

Meerkat tales follows the 2010 release of Aleksandr's autobiography, A Simples Life, which went on to sell over half a million copies and outsell the memoirs of Tony Blair and Keith Richards.

Fans of the meerkat can watch the live event via Aleksandr's Facebook page. Over 800,000 people have 'liked' the Aleksandr Orlov - Founder of Compare the Meerkat page.

The collection has a recommended retail price of £35.94, although the six books can be bought individually for £5.99.

So far, advanced sales of Meerkat Tales have seen the collection enter the Top 10 of Amazon's Movers and Shakers Chart. It has also been tipped to be the Christmas No. 1 bestseller.

The first 50 people to buy two of the six books in the collection from Harrods will be invited to the reading and they will be able to put questions to Aleksandr.

Ahead of the reading, the meerkat, who urges people looking for car insurance to visit comparethemarket.com, said: "I am looking forward to giving this first reading of my book to the peoples of UK.

"Hopefully they are better listen than Sergei. Last time I read book he not even have hearing aids switch on."

The comparethemeerkat.com advertising campaign was created by the creative agency VCCP. The company said the campaign has been a "phenomenal" success. It increased quotes to the company by 80 per cent in the first nine weeks and has tripled awareness of comparethemarket.com.

Hopefully, Aleksandr the meerkat will have better timekeeping than another celebrity who recently launched a product at Harrods.

Lady Gaga sparked outrage among fans earlier this month when she left them waiting for hours for her to arrive at the launch of her perfume, Lady Gaga Fame.