Staff at WH Smith Chester said they had 'never seen anything' like the crowds reality star Joey Essex attracted to his book signing this morning (Thursday May 28).

Hundreds of young girls turned out to see the star of The Only Way is Essex sign copies of his new book publication, The Book of You (And Me), with some having queued for six hours from 6am to ensure they didn't miss him.

Joey arrived 15 minutes later than scheduled, wearing a grey tracksuit, amid screams and chants of 'Joey, Joey' as he posed for photographs with fans and signed their books.

One member of staff told The Chronicle: "Joey is definitely the most popular star we've had in a while. We had a good turnout for Ricky Hatton last week and Gino D'Campo before that, but nothing on this scale. I've not seen anything like it. Some girls have been here since 6am."

Some of those included Abi Williams, Evie Jones and Nicole Bradbury, all 13 from Buckley, who had got up at 4am to make sure they were some of the first in the queue. Their efforts paid off when they got to meet the man himself, but it all got a bit much for Abi, who started crying when she saw him.

"He asked me why I was crying and how long we had been queuing for," she said. "But we wanted to make sure we got to see him. He's lovely, and was really chatty to us."

But some fans were disappointed they had to pay £12.99 for a book to be in with a chance of meeting him. The book enables readers to ‘get inside the mind of Joey with this create-along journal’.

Joey Essex rose to fame in 2011 after appearing in the ITV2 television series The Only Way Is Essex and went on to take part in the first series of the celebrity diving show Splash! and the 13th series of I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, where he finished in fourth place. In March 2014, he starred in a one-off documentary called Educating Joey Essex, and in 2015, he won the Channel 4 reality series The Jump.

Fans Ellie Jones and Kayleigh and Bethany Snell from Queensferry, said they had made the effort to come and see Joey 'because he's just really fit.'