J.K. Rowling along with fifty other authors have revisited one of their novels and annotated it however much or little they wished. A genuine first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone will be up for auction at Sotheby’s (during May?) in aid of English Pen, a charity that defends the rights of writers and readers alike, promoting freedom of speech.
To read the full article click here.
JK Rowling recently did a lengthy interview with The New Yorker, the article of which is 10 pages long sees Jo discuss The Casual Vacancy and Harry Potter. We learn various new things about her new novel (please note that there are spoilers – things such as quotes etc – included in the article so read at your own risk but also adult themes), a number of points from the article have been included below but read the article for the full run-down.
Jo on adult themes in The Casual Vacancy:
“There is no part of me that feels that I represented myself as your children’s babysitter or their teacher,” Rowling said. “I was always, I think, completely honest. I’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write.”
“I had a lot of real-world material in me, believe you me,” Rowling said. “The thing about fantasy—there are certain things you just don’t do in fantasy. You don’t have sex near unicorns. It’s an ironclad rule. It’s tacky.” She then added, carefully, “It’s not that I just wanted to write about people having sex.”
On her early difficult days writing the first Harry Potter book 20 years ago:
“I was trying to write through that time, and I did,” she said. “But it was patchy and fitful and sometimes I just didn’t have the focus to do it.” (Rowling did write a long, illustrated astrological birth chart for the newborn son of a friend.) She said, “It was Jessica—I have to credit her with so much—that gave me the impetus to go and say to a doctor, ‘I think I’m not quite right, and I need some help here.’ Having done that made a massive difference.”
She began therapy, and “pressed on with the book, and things came together. In my head, at least. Externally, my life might not have looked a great deal better. My friend, I hope he wouldn’t mind me saying, my friend Sean, my oldest friend, he lent me a deposit on a much better rented flat.” (Sean Harris was the Wyedean friend with access to the Ford Anglia.) “And, you know, things slowly turned round.” She finished “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in 1995, shortly before starting her teacher-training course. “Having that child forced me to finish the bloody book,” she said. “Not because I thought it was going to save us but because I thought it was going to be my last chance to finish it.”
Jo on the period after Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:
“That was a really hard time for me. The pressure of it had become overwhelming, actually. I found it difficult to write, which had never happened to me before in my life. The intensity of the scrutiny was overwhelming. I had been utterly unprepared for that. And I needed to step back. Badly needed to step back.” She had published four books in four years. “I said to Bloomsbury, ‘There won’t be a book next year, I can’t do it,’ which they were great about. It ended up being three years. So it was 2000 for ‘Goblet of Fire,’ and 2003 for ‘Phoenix.’ ”
Harry was more a character with responsibilities than a person she knew. In the role given to him, she said, “Harry has that sort of Galahad quality. It seems that you can’t escape it.”
Though it was possible to imagine Ron Weasley, Harry’s friend, embracing a Muggle existence, “Harry, as a character, can’t. The person who is leading the quest—it seems that they have to have this weird purity about them. And, after all, if Harry really had gone through everything he went through, he probably wouldn’t be mentally healthy enough to survive anywhere, would he?”
To read the full 10 page article click here
In JK Rowling – Writing for Adults which is broadcast on BBC Two on September 26, interviewer James Runcie meets the notoriously private writer in her hometown of Edinburgh to find out about the pressure and pitfalls of following up the 20th Century’s biggest literary phenomenon.
Runice has said that the new book will reveal unseen facets of the writer that will shock many of her fans. In the interview, Rowling reveals how she finally moved on from Potter and the challenges of making the leap writing fiction for adults. In the interview she finally reveals the exact nature of the novel, with exclusive readings and in-depth discussion about its ideas, characters and inspiration.
Rowling has sold 450 million copies of the Potter books and has not published any new novels since Harry signed off with The Deathly Hallows in 2007. She has confirmed that there will be no more adventures about the world’s favourite wizard.
Source: here
They’ve been hugely popular since 2001, and now JK Rowling’s two companion books to the Harry Potter series, which she kindly wrote for Comic Relief, are available to buy as eBooks for the first time.
Over the past 11 years, sales of Quidditch through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them have raised nearly £18 million – an amazing amount of money that is already hard at work changing lives. One way in which this money helps is by providing vital education to children who live in extreme poverty across some of the world’s poorest countries.
Fans of the Harry Potter series can now get these informative and enjoyable volumes as eBooks exclusively at the Pottermore Shop, with at least 40% from the sale of each eBook being donated to Comic Relief. Quidditch through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp is perfect for anyone who ever asked themselves where the Golden Snitch came from, or how Bludgers came into existence. Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander is a duplicate of Harry Potter’s own copy of this guide to magical creatures, complete with his and his friends’ informative notes in the margins.
Source: Comic Relief
Five years after the final book was published, “Harry Potter” still has a magical hold on us. The J.K. Rowling series has recently been crowned the number one young adult novel of all time, followed by “The Hunger Games,” according to NPR’s newly released “100 Best-Ever Teen Novels” list. The two extremely popular series beat out classics like Harper Lees “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which finished third, and J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” at number six.
NPR received more than 1,000 book nominations from 75,000 readers — the biggest response it has gotten for a book survey. YA literature is the fastest-growing fiction genre, according to the American Association of Publishers, so the numbers are no surprise. But even though Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen finished ahead of Scout Finch, literary scholars are not too worried.
To view the full list of 100 books then click HERE
Sony has unveiled Wonderbook, a peripheral device for their PlayStation 3 home console that will bring interactive storybooks to life. Wonderbook works in tandem with Sony’s PlayStation Eye and Move motion controller, using augmented reality graphics and a book-shaped peripheral. Readers (players?) can then interact with the story as the book progresses, able to take part in games and activities, as well as influencing the outcome of the story.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has written the first release for Wonderbook, named The Book of Spells. Set in the Harry Potter universe, The Book of Spells has players working through wizard training at Hogwarts School, learning magic spells which are then cast using the PlayStation Move controller as a wand.
“This is the closest a Muggle can come to a real spellbook,” said Rowling. “I’ve loved working with Sony’s creative team to bring my spells, and some of the history behind them, to life. This is an extraordinary device that offers a reading experience like no other.”
The Book of Spells is slated to be the first release of many for the Wonderbook, with Sony saying at their pre-E3 conference that they are planning on releasing both fictional stories and educational books for the device. The Wonderbook is scheduled for release later this year.
Source: here
The Queen has drawn inspiration from the Harry Potter books and named a litter of her breeding puppies after characters from the hugely successful children’s books.
A Labrador from one litter was named Gryffindor, the house the boy wizard belongs to at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His name was chosen by the Queen who also personally names all of the puppies currently being bred at Sandringham Estate, the Queen’s country retreat in Norfolk. While it is known one of the “Harry Potter” litter is named Gryffindor, it remains unclear what other characters have been used for its companions.
The kennels, established by Edward VII in 1879 to house 100 dogs, are now home to some 20 gundogs, labradors and cocker spaniels of variety of ages. The 86 year-old is currently breeding and working cocker spaniels, which she is said to value for their ability to retrieve game from difficult and dense cover.
Source: here
Bloomsbury, the publisher behind the popular book and movie franchise, Harry Potter, revealed higher revenues due to the increase demand for e-books. Bloomsbury also revealed that Harry Potter books remain as one of the best-selling titles in the company.
Bloomsbury will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the publication of the first Harry Potter book next month, with a “large consumer competition”. The publishers experienced an increase in sales due to the release of the final Harry Potter film last July, 2011.
The release of boxed sets last Christmas time also had an effect with the total sales. In terms of e-books, the publishing company also experienced an increase in e-book demand from the company’s backlist. One of which includes the book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, which was made into a movie starring Julia Roberts.
“It’s as dramatic a shift as the move from hardback to paperback books seemed in the 1960s but well within the capability of the industry to take in its stride. People are building up their e-book libraries just like they built up their CD collections [when the music format first launched].” said Nigel Newton, the chief executive of Bloomsbury.
Source: Here
More than 60 academics from across the world are gathering in Scotland to examine the literary merits of the Harry Potter novels. Scholars will discuss the JK Rowling books over the next two days, with 50 lectures on the boy wizard scheduled at the University of St Andrews. Topics include the role of paganism, British national identity and how death is dealt with in the book series. An anthology based on the conference is planned for publication in 2013.
The conference has been organised by Prof John Patrick Pazdziora from the University’s School of English and Father Micah Snell from the University’s Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (ITIA).
Prof Pazdziora said: “We can’t avoid the fact that Harry Potter is the main narrative experience of an entire generation – the children who literally grew up with Harry Potter. The Harry Potter novels are simply the most important and influential children’s books of the late-20th and early 21st Centuries.” He added: “For very many people, this is their first experience of literature, and of literary art. So they want to think about it, and analyse it, and talk about it.”
The keynote speaker for the event – which is entitled A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature – is John Granger, author of The Deathly Hallows Lectures. Mr Granger said: “I take exception to the unexamined and misinformed assumption that the books are ‘light on literary merit’. Ms Rowling’s works are comic, certainly, but it’s a great mistake to think they’re simple or haphazard story-telling. Hogwarts, we’re told, is hidden somewhere in Scotland, the author lives here, too, and Ms Rowling’s mother was half Scot. It’s somehow appropriate and fitting that the first academic conference of any size be held at Scotland’s oldest university, St Andrews.”
Source: here
Pottermore updated their twitter feed earlier today with the exciting news that the first book in the Potter series has been updated with new exclusive content from Jo… excerpts from various Hogwarts library books.
“You can now visit the library on Pottermore and read excerpts from selected books bit.ly/L5kOet” – Pottermore
By going to Pottermore’s Chapter 14 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, “Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback”, you’ll be inside the Hogwarts library. However, to see the excerpts for yourself, you will gave to click about randomly to find each excerpt. Have fuuun :’D
