It would make the perfect present for any man as stubbornly unromantic as Mr Big.

But when fans rushed out to buy the Love Letters of Great Men  -  Carrie Bradshaw's choice of bedtime reading  -  they discovered a snag. It didn't exist.

The book was created specially for the recent Sex and The City film, and was not available in shops.

However, the publisher Pan Macmillan has now bowed to public demand by using the title seen in the movie to produce its own collection of love notes.

In Sex and the City, Carrie reads Big Love Letters of Great Men - a book created especially for the movie

The volume is billed as a ' collection of some of the most romantic letters ever written'.

It features tender scribblings from figures such as Henry VIII, John Keats, Robert Browning, Pliny and Napoleon.

Also included is Oscar Wilde's correspondence with his aristocratic lover Lord Alfred Douglas.

A spokesman for Pan Macmillan UK said: 'As a result of the film, bookshops were inundated with customer requests for the book that didn't actually exist.

'But all of the letters referenced were real, so we decided to create the book.'

In the film, Carrie is seen reading Beethoven's Letters to His Immortal Beloved to Mr Big as they sit in bed together.

The passage contains the lines: 'Oh continue to love me  -  never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine, ever mine, ever ours.'

Later in the film, Mr Big quotes these final words back to Carrie as he asks for her forgiveness for his commitment-phobic ways.

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Pre-orders for the book, which is released on August 15, have already run into thousands and it is expected that interest will surge again when the Sex and the City film is released on DVD next month.

Jon Butler, commissioning editor of non-fiction at Pan Macmillan, said the romantic idea had captured people's imaginations.

'I think the fictional book mentioned in the film has such resonance-because we no longer have a tangible record of our relationships any more,' he said.

'The simple effort of writing something romantic in a letter, buying stamps, and going out to post the letter has been swapped for a snatched email here, a text there. This book shows us what we've lost as a result.'

Two American firms, Filiquarian Publishing and Kessinger Publishing, have also decided to release similar collections.

The success of the book has been linked to the 'Sarah Jessica Parker effect'  -  adding to the frenzy over her offbeat fashion sense and championing of relatively unknown fashion designers.

Miss Parker, who was executive producer of both the television show and the film, is now worth in excess of £15million.

The film version of Sex and the City was lambasted by critics, but it has been a box office success and has netted close to £200million worldwide.

A sequel has already been discussed.