< > While waiting for the next Harry Potter book 5, I decided to find out what other interesting books to read this summer. Jake Lipson told me about an author named Philip Pullman. I’ve just finished reading a book by Philip Pullman called ‘The Golden Compass’ as it’s called in the US, and also called ‘Northern Lights’ in UK. It’s a fantasy story that was recommended to me by Jake when I joined his reading program. I really enjoyed reading this book. Here is what it says about the book on the rear cover: “Twelve-year-old Lyra Belacqua (she’s the main character in the book) lives unparented and half-wild among the scholars of Jordan College (in Oxford, England). One day her uncle Lord Asriel, an experimental theologian and explorer, arrives with terrifying news from the north. Impelled at first by her own curiosity, but soon pursued by appalling dangers, Lyra is drawn into a savage struggle among the armoured bears and witch-clans of the Arctic, where a scientific research station is carrying out experiments too horrible to be spoken about. In order to survive at all, she must leave her childhood behind and venture where no one has gone before – beyond the Northern Lights.” This is the first book of a series of three written by Philip Pullman. I’ve just started the second book which follows on from the first, and is so far promising to be just as exciting to read. I thought I’d mention that I spotted another book recently in a bookshop, and I made a note of it. What caught my eye was that it had a sticker on it saying ‘Hotter Than Potter’ The book is called ‘The Homeward Bounders’ by Diana Wynne Jones. I did not have time to find out what book’s story was about, but I noticed that this author has written about 17 books.

< > I thought I’ll write something about the word ‘muggles’ used in the Harry Potter books. The US author Nancy Stouffer said she thought of the word ‘muggle’ for her children’s story book in 1984 before Rowling did, and claims she has the copyright on the word. And Nancy Stouffer is also claiming that Rowling copied it from her. According to the latest news I read is that both authors may eventually be fighting it out in a court case, if no agreement is reached. The title of a Nancy Stouffer’s book is; The Legend of Rah and The Muggles. You can read about Nancy’s claim for the word ‘muggle’ on a web site. Muggles lawsuit. Also there is a web site about Nancy Stouffer's books. Realmuggles web site. The word 'muggle' has been used long before JK Rowling and Nancy Stouffer put it in their story books. If you look up the word ‘muggle’ in most books of slang words, you will find that a word ‘muggle’ was used in America in the middle of the last century, referring to a type of drug cigarette. I also read that the famous jazz singer Louis Armstrong made a record titled Muggles in 1928, which has been reissued many times. Anyway just for fun I looked in an old Victorian dictionary, and found a word ‘Muggletonian’. The dictionary said that in the year 1651 in England, a man called Lodovic Muggleton with his associate John Reeves set up a Christian cult society, called 'The Muggletonians'. Without going into too much detail about the society, the two men claimed they were the last two greatest prophets of Jesus Christ. The two prophets these men were referring to, are mentioned in the bible New Testament (Revelations X1, sections 3 to 6). The Muggletonian society still existed up to the end of the 19th century. But here is additional news I recently added, I read that the last possible person Muggletonian died on 26th February 1979, his name was Philip Noakes and all his Muggletonian society notes and material have been given to the National British Library in London. There is also a book written about the Muggletonians, I recently bought a copy to read about its history. The Muggletonian society was born in a period in England when there was a lot of religious upheaval, around the year about 1650. And lots of small breakaway religious groups were set up. Another group were called the Seekers (I don't know if they played Quidditch!), but other well known ones are still here today, the Quakers and Baptist. In future perhaps someone else will set up a new Muggletonian society? Maybe for people who have no magical powers and can never go to Hogwarts School. There is a society called the ‘Flat Earth Society’. For people who believe the earth is not round. They lost a lot of members after the 1970’s when space travel started to prove the earth is round. I once found a web site somewhere for this society, via an Internet search engine.

< > I’ve been reading a book about mystical dragons of different countries around the world. I read the dragons of East Asia, that of China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia. It is said the dragons of these countries lose toes on their feet as they travel east. So if you ever see a dragon where you are with no toes, you will know that it had travelled from east Asia! So many countries have legend stories about dragons, it’s possible that some form of creatures might have once existed on land or in the sea. In the sea like Loch Ness monster in Scotland. One interesting story I read was that in 1915 in World War One, a German submarine sunk a ship, about a minute after the ship went below the water, there was a big underwater explosion. According to the captain of the submarine the underwater blast forced a gigantic monster out of the water. It was about 60 feet long and looked like a crocodile with a pointed tail and had four limbs the webbed feet. Another story is that the crew of ship in 1875 watched a large sea serpent more than a hundred feet long attacking a whale off the coast of Brazil. About a week later the captain of the ship with his officers and crew saw a similar sea monster again. This is one of a number of stories of monster that has been seen at sea over the centuries.

< >On a recent British radio program called 'Desert Island Discs', JK Rowling was interviewed talking about her life story. Here is the basic outline of what the program was about, that was mainly for adult listeners, since many adults may not know who JK Rowling is. During the program interview there were short breaks every few minutes, in which some of Rowling's favourite music was played. A lot of what she said has been mentioned before. For example, that she thought of the Harry Potter story while travelling on a train, and that she used to write in a cafe, while being a single mother out of work. She mentioned that her book publisher advised her not to use her name "Joanne", but instead use "J.K.", to make the Harry Potter stories appealing to boys as well as girls. Rowling said she that thought about 50% of the newspapers articles written about her life, as a single mother living in poverty were a bit exaggerated. She said it's true she wrote in a cafe, but not because she was in search of somewhere to keep warm during the day. What she liked about writing in her favourite café, in Edinburgh, was the flavour of the coffee, and it saved her the bother of having to make it herself. The first record on the program played, was by 'The Beatles', called "Come together", because it reminded of her early life, because when she was born her parents were in their 20's and they played all the Beatles records. It was at the age of 25 that she got the idea of Harry Potter and most of basic outline of the story, on a train journey to King's Cross station in London. She kept her notes about the Harry Potter stories filed in cardboard boxes. It was on the train she decided that there would be a total of 7 books to write. On the train journey she had the idea that Harry's parents had died, but it was not until five years later after the train journey that she finally worked out how Harry's parents had died. She did attempt to write two other stories before, but abandoned them when the Harry Potter idea came along. The character, Rita Skeeter was originally going to be in the first book. Where Harry first walks into the Leaky Cauldron, Rita was going to ask him for an interview. But Rowling decided to cut her out, and put Rita in book 4 instead. Another record she picked was by the 'The Smiths', called "Big mouth strikes again". She mentioned one of her grandfathers was a great storyteller when she was child, and told lots of stories to her. Her daughter was 5 months old when her marriage broke up. And it was a time of great sadness for her, on the first Christmas alone; a friend bought her a record by a pop group called, R.E.M. On it was a song called " Everybody hurts"(I liked this one). She said it sounds a bit corny, but she played this song over and over again, and it helped her. What she liked about the R.E.M. song is that the words are simple, like Paul McCartney's (Beatles) song "Yesterday", she said. Here is a quick reminder of some of the words of the "Yesterday" song, "Yesterday, all my troubles seem so far away. Now it looks as though they're her to stay….". Another record that was played on the program was Mozart Requiem in D minor. Her daughter was named after a writer she admired, Jessica Mitford. Her daughter, now 7, has had 12 year olds asking her at school, is it true that your mother wrote Harry Potter. Rowling said there are two groups of people who think she fully supports. One, are those people who believe in the 'boarding school' idea. Like Hogwarts school where kids are educated way from home. The other group, are the practicing witches, who say Rowling's Harry Potter stories have improved their image with the public. Rowling says she has never been to boarding school, and doesn't believe in magic, like in the Harry Potter stories. Talking about the amount of money she now has, she said its rather like winning the lottery. She believes she worked hard to get where she is now, but never expected to earn so much money. And does feel a bit guilty about having so much. The next record played, was by Marianne Faithfull, called "Guilt". The final chapter of book 7 has already been written, and locked away somewhere safe. Rowling was asked would she carry on writing after she has finished book 7 (she thinks will be written in the year 2003 or 2004). She said she would like to carry on writing, but might not want to publish a book again, because being in the public eye has at times not always been an enjoyable experience. Fortunately Jessica has to grown up with all, and learned to cope with it all ok. There was so much hype before book 4, Rowling said she never want to live through all that tension again. And when book 7 comes out, she may go away somewhere out of the country to avoid all the excitement. She was asked to pick another record to hear on the program. So she thought, if she is on a desert island, then she would like to hear something really loud, and picked a record by Jimi Hendrix called "All along the Watchtower". The last record Rowling picked on the program, she said was probably her most favourite piece of music in the world, Mozart Requiem in D minor. Rowling was then asked which of the records that were played, would she take with her on the desert island, and Rowling picked, Tchaikovsky violin concerto in D major, to remind her of her daughter. Asked what she would like to have to with her on a desert island, she said she would like a pen and plenty of paper to write. For reading she would like Shakespare and the bible. And a SAS survival guide book, as she is not a very practical person when it comes to doing things, if she had to survive on a desert island. Finally, I thought I'll mention something about this BBC program, the BBC have brought out their own 'Desert Island Discs' CD called "without". It includes many of the past records that have been played on the show such as; Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Buddy Holly etc.

< > The children's TV program the Teletubbies was launched in Russia on November 12th Sunday, with a big party for 3000 young kids near Red Square, Moscow. Russian TV has bought all the 365 episodes of the BBC TV Teletubbie series. But Tinky Winky and friends stayed away incase they frighten the young kids, because in real life they are about 9 feet high! With the actors inside the costumes. If they did show up, they might have frightened the Russian adults as well! If they have never heard of the Teletubbies, they might have thought aliens form outer space had invaded the center of Moscow. The Teletubbies saying “Take me to your leader, or you will get tubbie custard in your face!” I wonder if the kids had lots of tubbie custard, and tubbie toast to eat? And probably after the kids went home, Noo Noo came and cleaned up everything.

< > A museum in Chicago has a large doll house that looks like a castle. Some of the rooms inside might look like parts of Hogwarts School. It measures 9 feet square, and 12 feet high. I found a web site address that allows you to take a tour of the castle rooms. Click here to visit the castle. This fairy castle once belonged to Colleen Moore, a 1920's movie actress. Her dream was to create a castle on a miniature scale. She spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and seven years making her dream come true. The Colleen Moore's doll house is at The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. The outside shape of this doll house is similar to the Bavaria castle I have mentioned in a article below, and in the LINKS section.

< >15th October. JK Rowling's book publisher, Bloomsbury, think they may have found another winning children's story writer, her name is Celia Rees, who has written a number of books (I don't know if her books are aimed at both boys and girls to read). Has written a novel called 'Witch Child'. The story is aimed at those who are aged about 13 upwards. It's a story about a girl witch called Mary Newbury. The story starts in 17th century England, and then she goes to America. An American publisher called Candlewick, will have a big publicity build-up for the book at Halloween 2001. There is also talk of a possible film being made. The story is based on written papers that were found hidden inside a quilt dating from the early American colonial period, known as ‘the Mary papers’. Being based on actual events, I think the story may be more gruesome in parts than the Harry Potter stories. At the end of the book it mentions a web address of a writer who is trying to find out if anyone knows what ever happened to Mary, or the other people mentioned in the papers found in the quilt. The Bloomsbury UK hardback book has about 220 pages, cost £10.99 (about $16). ISBN 0 7475 4639 8. There is a short written introduction with details about this book in the children's book section of Bloomsbury Publishing's web site at; www.bloomsbury.com

< > Ever wondered what 'Wicca' is about? Here is a web site that gives lots of answers about what Wicca means. What is Wicca?

< >I read in a newspaper article, a scientist said that within the next 30 or 40 years it could be possible create new kinds of animals that never existed before, such as mythical creatures like a unicorn, or a dragon. Or even bring back long-dead extinct species, such as a dinosaur. Once the DNA secrets of life are fully known. A scientist gives one example how a unicorn could be made. First find the genes that make up a whale called a Narwhal , also known as a sea unicorn, because it has a long horn, which is a snout on the front of it. Then the DNA could be “cut and spliced” into the genes a horse, and hopefully if he’s right, you’ll have a horse with a horn on its head! Just think, animals could be made to order for any Warner Brothers fantasy movie! Imagine one day in the future kids might be seeing a Harry Potter movie with real mythical animals in it. Anyway, I only hope no mad scientist tries to cross a killer bee with a jumbo jet! All hell will be let loose.

< >I read in an old copy of a British magazine called Computer Talk, that ghost and phantoms seem to be keeping abreast of the latest computer developments. There have been cases of spooky ghost and poltergeist taking up residence in a computer! Sometimes a computer has to be taken away to be investigated. Often ghost-busters have to be called in cases when a computer is not plugged in, and has messages on the screen and disc drives going round, frightening the office staff! The first example of spiritual interest in high-tech occurred in 1978 when a company Rank Xerox called in ghost-busters to clear up the mystery of an unhappy 'poltergeist' at their computer headquarters near London, England. In another case, one computer claimed to have produced messages from the 16th-century from someone who once existed, but has been dead for over 400 years. So beware when buying a second-hand computer, you don’t know why the last person got rid of it! - only joking!

< >I was having a look in a book with pictures of castles and buildings in Europe to see which place that would fit the idea of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Like the drawing of a castle shown on the rear cover of the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ( I assume it's also on the rear of book you have?). In my opinion, it has be the castle that the one in the center of Disney Land is copied from. It's an amazing fairytale looking castle, with lots of unusual shape towers. It's perched high up among the mountains, in the southern part of Germany called Bavaria. The castle is called Neuschwanstein (I have no idea how it's pronounced, not to worry). A king called Ludwig, started to build it just over a hundrerd years ago, in 1869. Many books have been written about this king, and his strange life style. With titles like The Dream King, The Mad King of Bavaria, he was also known as a Fairy Tale King. He had an obsession for building dream castles around Bavaria. In 1886 he drowned in a lake before he could build more castles that he had planned. At the time he almost bankrupted his kingdom. Today his castles are one Bavaria's biggest tourist attractions. In my LINKS section I have some web sites you can click on to in case you want to see a picture of what the castle looks like.

<>My mystical cat Sirron, read a small article in a newspaper recently that mentioned King's Cross mainline station, in London. We all know about Harry Potter and platform 9 & three-quarters at this station. Apparently under another platform, which is platform 8, according to a legend, is the possible burial place of a famous ancient warrior woman. No not 'Xena' the warrior princess! But Queen Boadicea, who was a queen of the ancient Britons. Also a few miles north of King's Cross, at a place called Hampstead Heath, is another possible burial place of the Queen Boadicea, the spot is marked with a small stone pillar. Sometime in the future an archaeological dig may take place at Hampstead Heath to investigate if anything of interest is buried there.

<>Sirron says she won't go near platform 8, says she can see things that a Muggle can't see! Claims to have seen a ghost of a warrior woman! Who did not know who Harry Potter was, may have tried to stop him going through the gate at platform 9 & three quarters, in the second Harry Potter book. I told Sirron she's been watching too many 'Xena' TV programs!

< >I was asked recently what is the difference between the names, Britain and United Kingdom. I will try and to explain this in detail. If you look at a map of Europe, you will see two large islands off the west coast of Europe. The larger one is called Great Britain (often people say 'Britain' for short), the smaller island next to it on the west side is called Ireland. These two large islands together plus lots of very tiny islands near, make up what is called the 'British Isles'. The larger island, Great Britain (or Britain as most people would say), is divided into 3 sections, England, Scotland, Wales. And the large island on the west of Britain is called Ireland, this is made up of two countries, the southern part is Irish Republic (most people just say Ireland for short), the country in the northern part is known as Northern Ireland. There is another word it's United Kingdom (UK), This is made up of Great Britain plus Northern Ireland.

Here is another way of explaining this;

Great Britain = England, Scotland, Wales.
United Kingdom (UK) = Britain (England, Scotland, Wales) + Northern Ireland.
Ireland = Irish Republic + Northern Ireland.
British Isles = Great Britain + Ireland.
British Isles = United Kingdom + Irish Republic.
You may find on some old school maps that Irish Republic was called 'Eire', this name is now no longer used.
When it comes to international sports events, like the world football. England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Irish Republic, all have their own teams.
Then in the Olympic events, the United Kingdom, and Irish Republic have their own international teams. So for various international sporting events the make-up of the teams could be different for each event.

Each part of the British Isles also have their own slight accents when the people speak. And sometimes the local people may say their sentences slightly different when talking to each other locally.