One online distributor has withdrawn the #MeToo memoir, but other stores have stocked it, and the publisher insists it will not be withdrawn

Ronan Farrow’s book on the #MeToo movement has been withdrawn from sale in Australia by one online bookseller but was available in bookstores on Tuesday despite a legal threat from an Australian journalist who Farrow has previously alleged helped to protect the disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein from negative publicity.

The book, Catch and Kill, was released in Australia on Tuesday and was on sale in some shops, including Readings and WH Smith in Melbourne. But customers who ordered it from the online seller Booktopia were told it had been “withdrawn from sale” and had their payment refunded.