< > Here is web site where you can find out the news about the next Harry Potter movie and its actors. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie news.. This next link tells you all about the next new Dumbldore actor, he is Michael Gambon. Michael Gambon.. Also there was a rumor that Warner Bros. might be sued by a Russian law firm for making Dobby’s face look similar to Viadimir Putin’s face, the Russian President. And a Time magazine article says perhaps Dobby should also sue the Russian President for looking like him.

< > In a movie magazine I read that Warner Bros. has registered three new Harry Potter names; “Harry Potter and the Alchemist’s Cell”, “Harry Potter and the Chariots of Light”, “Harry Potter and the Pyramids of Furmat”. This has started rumors of possibly one more book after book 7 might be written. But the author JK Rowling has said there will be only seven books. We will see, perhaps the all the names are being kept in reserve for future movies? Anyway the next published book from JK Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, will out on 21st June this year.

< > 25th December 2002. I wish all the Harry Potter readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2003 New Year! I hope you will not have to wait too long in the new year for the next Harry Potter book from JK Rowling. I bet it will be worth waiting for when it comes out.

< > 3rd November. Today is the big day for the second Harry Potter movie. I think Warner might have spoilt the movie by including very large spiders, this meant a warning to parents was put out saying that there is a scene in the movie with large spiders might be too frightening for very young kids to see. But there are also parents who hate seen large spiders!

< >Here is news about Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson ,and Rupert Grint Newspaper article about the three actors.

< > The sad news recently of the movie actor Richard Harris who played Dumbledore. One British national morning newspaper (The Sun) had across the front page ‘Dumbledore is dead’. Here are a few newspaper articles for you to read about his death. A newspaper report about Richard Harris. Here is another newspaper article. A second newspaper report about Richard Harris. A third newspaper report about Richard Harris. A third newspaper report about Richard Harris. A third newspaper report about Richard Harris. A forth newspaper report about Richard Harris.

< >29th September 2002. I have been rather busy doing a lot of writing over last few months, and was not able to find the time update news articles. But last week three news articles about JK Rowling appeared in the several newspapers; first news was about Rowling winning a 3 year legal battle against Nancy Stouffer over Harry Potter words like ‘Muggles’, Nancy Stouffer claimed she thought of the word first. On losing the court case Nancy Stouffer was fined about $45,000 (£30,000). The next news is that JK Rowling is now expecting a baby which is due about next April. Read article about JK Rowling expecting a baby.. Also newspapers said there was is still no publishing date for book 5, also now that a baby is due may explain why she is taking longer to write book 5. Rowling did say that her perfectionist nature is delaying the delivery date of the book 5 manuscript to her publisher. The other news is that last week central England was hit by an earthquake at 1am in the morning. The radio & TV news said the source of the earthquake was traced to Dudley. When I heard the news I thought Dudley Dursley had fallen out of bed 1am in the morning and caused the earthquake! But no, as it happens there is a town in central England called Dudley, and the quake was started 10 miles below ground. It measured 4.8 on the ‘humpty-dumpty’ scale, as I like to call it. But the most bizarre news statement was from the Dudley town council, they said the effects of earthquake caused more than £2million pounds (about $3million) worth of improvements. Never in the history of earthquakes have I heard of improvements! There was a few buildings damaged by the earthquake in central England.

< > 12th June 2002. Here is a newspaper article about how some of the Harry Potter movie special effects were done article about Harry Potter movie special effects.
Also here are some news here about third Harry Potter Third Harry Potter movie news.
JK Rowling talked to a newspaper about what it was like to be a single mother with almost no money to write and bring up a baby JK Rowling talks about her as a single mother. If you do read this article, you may see that a she mentions a English money slang word “coppers”, this means the smallest value coins which are called pennies (or pence). A 100 penny coins = 1 pound (£1). In a part of the article she says, “ I remember reaching the supermarket checkout, counting out the money in coppers, finding out I was two pence short of a tin of baked beans and feeling I had to pretend I had mislaid a £10 note for the benefit of the bored girl at the till," says Jo.
Everyone keeps saying JK Rowling is taking a long time writing the next book. One newspaper says she is busy with her new married family life, the article also said she has been spending a lot of time at the movie studios to do much writing. Sometimes I think she might have had a break from Harry Potter for a while to write something else? I wonder if she has been writing a non-Harry Potter story? What made me say this is that two years ago I once read a small newspaper article that said she gave money to a friend to set up his own publishing company. She once did say that in future she might write other fiction stories but under a fictitious name, 'pseudonym' as it is called, a word I heard her say in a TV interview once.
Philip Pullman, the creator of the His Dark Materials trilogy. In a newspaper article talked about his views of other authors, I was surprised by his comments, Philip Pullman’s comments.
On May 8th 2002, the Hogwarts steam train with a set of carriages made a visit to King’s Cross station in London, as part of a publicity launch the of the latest Harry Potter video movie and DVD.

< >5th May 2002. I saw at a movie memorabilia event some original Harry Potter movie Ollivander's shop wand box's for sale at £395 !! (about $550). The cardboard wand box is about 18 inches long, and I assume at that price there was a wand inside the box. Any Harry Potter movie stuff for sale must have been twice as expensive as any other movie. There was a signed photo of Professor Flitwick (actor Warwick Davis), no price on it, and it must have been out of the range for most people. Also at the event was various movie memorabilia on display not for sale, used in movies like, Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 7. There were a few movie celebrities there doing signings. The event will be repeated again here at Milton Keynes shopping Centre, from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd September, I don't know what celebrites will be there. There is a web site that gives info about celebrity signing events, it's on www.autographica.co.uk

< > When JK Rowling was writing the Harry Potter story in Edinburgh, she became friends with another single mother, called Fiona. Rowling has now rewarded her friend's loyalty and friendship by giving her an apartment worth about $210,000 (£150,000) in one of Edinburgh's most desirable areas to live in.

Last Christmas there was a TV program about JK Rowling, in the program several ex-school teachers were being interviewed, including a headmaster. Each of them talked about Joanne Rowling’s school days, and then some of the ex-teachers read a short piece, a few lines from the first Harry Potter book. The ex-headmaster also read a few lines on Dumbledore. There was also an interview with her ex-science teacher from 1977, saying something about Rowing being a model pupil, he now wonders what went through Rowling's mind during chemistry lessons as he was saying things like, "this chemical is going to change into that chemical and so on". The science teacher was horrified when newspaper reporters once said to him, "you are Professor Snape aren’t you? He thinks Snape is a horrible person. The ex-science teacher read a few lines where Harry first meets Shape in potions class, he read out the bit on page 102, where Shape tells the class "As there is little foolish wand-waving here........to...... dunderheads as I usually have to teach".

Also in the TV program it mentioned that JK Rowling once wrote to the Potter family who she knew as a child, including a brother and sister who were her childhood friends in the street lived in. I saw on TV a copy of one letter she wrote, it said;

“Dear All, thanks for writing.
It was great to hear from you. I stole your surname I always liked it, as much as I hated Rowling, and I gave Harry several different surnames, before remembering you.”

< > 6th April 2002. I read that in the distant future JK Rowling could become the world’s first billionaire rich author, from all the money from book, movies, and merchandise.

< > For children who have to wear glasses can’t avoid seeing in every optician’s shop window in Britain adverts displaying real high quality ‘Harry Potter’ glasses are on sale. With gold metal frames, rather than the black ones seen in the movie. I see on the FILMFORCE web site (mentioned below), the names of some of the new actors that will be in the 3rd Harry Potter movie are being mentioned.

< > Hope my ‘April fools’ news article below was fun to read, you never know, Warner might turn it into a movie!

< >1st April 2002! For today only, this morning a special train event started from a large town in England called Manchester, and travelled to London. It followed the same route that JK Rowling took when she first thought of the story of Harry Potter. Today’s specially hired train journey was full of people who want to become a great writer like Rowling, 850 in all. Like Rowling’s train journey it was delayed half way to London for 4 years, no sorry I mean 4 hours! So that the budding new writers can try and think up the next possible great ‘Harry Potter’ winning story, while the train is delayed. Like JK Rowling on her train journey, some of the people had no pen or paper with them. Lunch and snacks was also provided on the train. On the train were editors from all those publishers that turned the first Harry Potter story. This time they did not want to make the same mistake, and miss another winner. They also had their chequebooks ready to sign up as many writers as possible that came up with a great story. Also a few movie directors from Warner Brothers were waiting at the station in London ready to sign a movie contract for any winning story. I heard on the main evening TV news that when the train finally arrived in London 10 hours late, that police had to be called to restore order on the train. Also an undertaker was called to the train when it arrived to take one body away. What happed was only one person came up with a story worth publishing, and all hell let loose on the train. A fight broke out among the 70 odd publisher editors that were crowded on the train, over who should have the story. When the editors found a possible winning story, chequebooks started signing at 50 pence (70 cents) for the story. By the time the train reached London it had raised to a final price offer of 70 million pounds (100 million dollars). Sadly that special writer’s train journey event came to nothing, because the one writer with a great story inside her head, suddenly died of heart attack when the offer price reached 69.99 million pounds! (99.99 million dollars!).

< > 20th March 2002. In the making of the latest second Harry Potter movie, 14 Ford Anglia cars were destroyed during the filming. They were in the scene where Harry and Ron crash the magical flying car. It took months for Warner Brothers to find 14 identical Ford Anglia cars in Britain. A newspaper article report says "Because of the damage inflicted, It would have been impossible to use just one car." I bet they must have wanted to make the crash scene look like something out of a 'James Bond' movie. I wonder why replica models of the car could not have been made for the crash?

< > When Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, she says she rewrote chapter one about 15 times, the problem was that it gave the reader too much detail of the story, and almost the whole plot of the book was explained in chapter one. I bet Rowling had the same trouble with book 5, at least one chapter being rewritten several times, thinking to herself that she will never get passed it.

< > JK Rowling’s name is now mentioned in the Encyclopaedia Britannica JK Rowling in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Here you can a newspaper article that says what has been put in Encyclopaedia Britannica about Rolwing's personal life story.

< >25th February 2002. Just a quick news to say I saw the Hogwarts steam train with a set of carriages today arrive at a station called Bletchley. It made a visit in aid of a charity I mentioned below. Many kids from a few local schools were there with some of their teachers along the platform waiting. At around midday the train arrived almost one hour late!). The weather was very bad, it was cold, windy, and raining. Tomorrow morning I will get a copy of the Daily Phophet to see if I can find out what the delay was, why the train was so late.

< > 22nd February 2002. Just a quick news article to say that the Hogwarts steam train has this week been at King's Cross station in London, for the filming of the second Harry Potter movie. On Monday it returns to its normal location in the north of England. Someone I know has told me that they read in a newspaper (I have not seen the article), that on Monday (25th Feb) the Hogwarts steam train on its return journey to Lancashire after filming, will be stopping at a station called Bletchley (near the large town of Milton Keynes), due to arrive at Bletchley station just after 11am, and should stay for about two hours, for people to see the train. I was told that you will need to buy a ticket to get on to the platform visit the train. And proceeds from platform tickets sold that day will go to a charity called 'Age Concern Milton Keynes'.

< >4th February 2002. Over the Christmas period I saw two TV programs about JK Rowling’s life story. Almost everyone knows something about her life story. Like that she first thought of the idea of Harry Potter on a train journey. But there were some interesting details. Rowling said she thought King’s Cross station, where Harry catches the train to Hogwarts school, as a very romantic station, because that was where her parents first met for first time on the train as the train was leaving the station for Scotland. Both were joining the navy. She said King’s Cross station became a part of her childhood folklore. In the TV program she goes back to the old flat she first lived with her daughter Jessica in Edinburgh as a poor single mother. The old flat is a few floors up in the large old building that has several other flats and apartments. As she stood outside at the building entrance and looked up, she said she hates being back, as it has memories of the worst period in her life, very depressing, and where the idea of dementors (that creature that sucks the happiness out of people) was created. She then went in building, up the winding stairways to the flat. Rowling was thinking of how the place used to be. What a shock! When she went into the flat. The place has been completely transformed, cleaned and modernised, with nice furniture. The old kitchen she once knew, is now a modern fitted kitchen. As she looked around she said she couldn’t believe how different it now looked, and said she would be delighted to live there again." Rowling said over the last few years every time she passed the building in a taxi or a bus, she imagined the flat was still old and dirty. She said coming back and seeing the place now so different was like an exorcism (removing an evil spirit). When she lived there the place was in such a poor state, people would later say to her, “how did you manage to live there, and rise a baby, and write a book.” She said the place was in a poor state, and said “it was partly my fault, I never did house work for 4 years, I’m not superwoman!” Then later in the program she said there is something that sometimes gets printed in newspapers about her life at the flat that really irritates her. She said, “Once and for all, for the record, I did not write in cafes to keep warm because of her unheated flat”. She said “I’m not stupid enough to rent an unheated my flat in Edinburgh in mid winter. It had heating, I went out and wrote in cafes as it was the only way to make Jessica fall asleep was to keep her moving to tire her out, once Jessica is tired, I put in the buggy to sleep, and then go into the nearest café to write. Her favourite place was a café called Nicholson’s, it was part owned by her brother-in-law, so the owners didn’t mind her to spending hours writing there, at her favourite table near a window. She used to say, “Once the book is published, I will get you lots of publicity”. It was all a big joke; no one ever dreamed it would come true. Anyway I will continue again with more details of what I saw on the TV program.

< >28th January. Its been a long time since I last wrote, over Christmas period I saw two TV programs about JK Rowling and how she wrote Harry Potter. I will be writing some details for those of you who did not see the programs. One piece of news read is about a small British football club named Bradford City. By coincidence the club’s scarves are the same colors as what Harry Potter wears Hogwarts School. The news about the scarves has got many Harry Potter fans world-wide contacting the club for the scarves. Sales have gone up eight-fold, because of demand, have several been sold out. Priced at £5.99 (maybe about $8.5). Here is a link to the Bradford City merchandise web site Bradford City merchandise shop. If you scroll down to near the bottom of the web page you will then find the scarf with a picture of it. I notice the club is careful how it mentions the scarves to Harry Potter fans. Because ‘Big Brother’, Warner Brothers would be watching to see how they mention the word ‘Harry Potter’ with reference to the product. I wonder if Warner bought some to be used in the movie?

< >Here is the WICA information site (Witchcraft Information Centre & Archive), www.wica.org.uk, WICA news information. Here you can find all the latest news and information about WICA.

< >Here is another web site you can read the latest news about the Harry Potter and JK Rowling, on a BBC news UK web site. BBC news.

< > On the site FILMFORCE, you can check what the latest news about the movie. FILMFORCE movie news.

< >30th December 2001. JK Rowling has secretly got married on 26th December, to her boyfriend Neil Murray, according to some newspaper reports. The wedding took place at her third home she bought in Scotland. She bought the Victorian mansion home earlier this year, it has six bedrooms, morning room, kitchen, library, and a study where it is said she is writing the 5th book. JK Rowling’s wedding news.

< > With the new year almost here, you might be able to see New Year events taking place around the world as it happens on a web cam site. Maybe on such sites as ‘Camvista.com’? Web cam views site.

< > 24th December. I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year, and we all wish JK Rowling every success with her next book.

< >JK Rowling and Harry Potter are on British TV over Christmas. At Christmas time on British TV there are three programs about JK Rowling and Harry Potter, I am sure in many other countries around the world there might be other Harry Potter programs to see. Here are three programs I found in Britain to see, all are one hour long each, on Friday 28th December on BBC1 at 7pm is “JK Rowling: Harry Potter and Me”. Then on Sunday 30th December on Discovery (cable TV) at 8pm is, “Discovering the Real World of Harry Potter”. Finally, there is on Monday 31st December, New Year’s Eve at 7pm on Channel 5 is, “JK Rowling and the Hogwarts Express”. I am sure some of these programs might be shown in other countries later. I cannot find any on the Radio, otherwise these could have been heard also on the internet.

< > JK Rowling has talked about the remaining books to be written. I read that in the next book, ‘Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix’, Harry is getting older, and will be aged 15, and there will be some boy-girl relationship stuff at Hogwarts. Harry will also find out more about his past, and will go to new places so far not mentioned in the books. Rowling has already planned most of the story plots for books 6 & 7. A book number 8 might be written at a later date for charity. Like when she wrote for the charity event, Comic Relief. Rowling mentioned one interesting fact, she admits she made an error when she dreamt up the mainline train station in the first book. Instead of King’s Cross station in London, she meant the mainline station to be another station called Euston. At the time Rowling was living in a large city called Manchester, and the mainline station you arrive at in London from Manchester by train is called Euston. She says, “I was living in Manchester and wrongly visualised the platforms, I was actually thinking of Euston station. So anyone who’s actually been to see the real platforms at King’s Cross will know that platforms 9 & 10 don’t have a resemblance to the platform in the book”. Personally I would say King’s Cross station is a better choice visually than Euston, which looks for too modern building with a flat roof, for the story. If she had picked maybe a number 7 or less at King's Cross station, it would have fitted in better with the book. It was in this area of lower numbers that a platform 4 was actually used in the movie at King's Cross. Euston and King’s Cross mainline stations are both about 12 minutes walk apart. Also trains to Scotland go from both these mainline stations.

< > At this time of the year Christmas I bet Warner Brothers are on the lookout to see that no theatres put on a Harry Potter Christmas show. Warner now owns ‘Harry Potter’. One could say, “ Rowling writes, Warner sues”. Theaters are not the only ones that get into trouble with Warner, also privately owned rail companies that have steam trains, cannot mention ‘Hogwarts Express’. One private rail company at Christmas ran a ‘Wizard’s Express’ train service ok, and also painted the steam engine red, without Warner stopping them. Another rail company owns the engine that took Rowling on a 3 day book signing tour of Britain last year from King’s Cross station, had been told they cannot display the ‘Hogwarts Express’ name plate they used last year on the engine. All they do now is mention to the public this was the engine that took Rowling on a book signing tour, to avoid trouble with Warner.

< > I read on 22nd December that some valuable movie stills of the second Harry Potter movie have been stolen from the studios. A warning has been has been put out to anyone who tries to sell the items over the internet.

< >12th December. The second Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), is due to be shown at the cinemas on 15th November 2002. The Variety magazine says the third Harry Potter movie may not be shown at the cinemas until 2004. This is because of other movies being made. It mentions two movies to be made are both Matrix sequels due for release in 2003.

< > 10th December 2001. Movie director Chris Columbus is going to great lengths to protect Daniel Radcliffe who plays Harry Potter. To ensure that Daniel leads a normal life, and does not suffer from the pressure of suddenly being a world wide famous child star. Chris does not want Daniel, aged 12, to get caught up in the cult of celebrity. Chris said “Just because you’re in a movie doesn’t mean that all other celebrities are your best friends.” He refuses Daniel to receive phone calls during the filming from any celebrities, such as Michael Jackson who it seems is a fan of Harry Potter. Chris says he does not want to offend anyone, but believes Daniel should be protected while he doing the Harry Potter movies.

< > The Harry Potter books has now been printed in so many different languages. Two more will be added, Latin and ancient Greek. Latin and Greek languages. I wonder if a Harry Potter book in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing will be next?

< > JK Rowling has bought a third house, a large country in Scotland. Read here about JK Rowling’s new house.

< > Other news is that JK Rowling has been voted Scotland’s top celebrity woman of the year.

< > There has been lots of people visiting King’s Cross station in London, to see the area where platform 9¾ might be. The station has been considering limiting the number of tourist visitors arriving to see the place. Now due to its popularity, the station has decided to renumber a part of the length of platform 9, to ‘9¾’. Even a notice information has been put up saying ‘Keep your owls caged at all times’, ‘No dragons allowed’ and ‘No Broom Parking’. There is even one train that leaves from there that has been specially decorated, but unfortunately it is not a steam train. I read that platform 4 at the station was used in the Harry Potter movie, for the scene where he disappears through a wall into plaform 9¾.

< > 8th December 2001. I would like to say that I've been to see the Harry Potter movie. I was so spellbound by it, I just had to see it again a week later. The special effects were great. I especially liked the Quidditch match and the chess game.

< >11th November 2001. There are now many magazines out now with articles about the Harry Potter movie. For those of you in Britain, magazines like HELLO!, OK!, NOW, all have photos. I liked HELLO! best because it has some great full size page souvenir photos. Other news I read is that there has been an increase in the number kids having their eyes tested in the last two weeks, Harry Potter has made it fashionable to wear glasses.

< > 5th November. Here you can read what the some of the British newspapers say about the world premiere of the Harry Potter movie that was shown in London. Daily Telegraph newspaper. and, The Times newspaper. and, The Sun newspaper.

< > You may have seen on TV the world premiere of the Harry Potter movie. I went along to join the crowds of people to see what was happening at the world premiere showing of the Harry Potter movie, on the 4th November. At a place called Leicester Square in central London. The square measures a little more than about 300 feet (91 metres) wide. It has a small park in the center. On three sides of the square, there are cinemas, plus a few cafes and restaurants. One of these cinemas is called the Odeon; this had the Harry Potter movie premiere. Above the front of entrance of the cinema was a big flat display showing Hogwarts school. In front of the Odeon cinema, a large special visitors seating stand had been erected, with several rows of seats arranged sloping upwards, along near the front of the cinema entrance, just a few yards away. Here specially invited guest, and anyone with tickets had a great view of the cinema entrance. Also temporary metal barriers were set up on the pavement to keep the crowds back, and make a pathway for the arriving movie stars. Then before the movie stars started to arrive, some of the kids with their parents who were waiting around nearby in the crowds, behind the metal barriers hoping for a chance to see the stars, were picked out of the crowds and given the offer also to sit in the special stand in front of the cinema entrance. Later some of kids that were in this area, even managed to get signed autographs! From the arriving stars. For those people who could not see everything happening at the at the cinema entrance, like me (although I could see some of the stars from a distance), we were able to see it all happening on one of the large display screens that were placed around the small square. Every important star that arrived gave a short interview chat at the cinema entrance; this was also seen and heard on the large screens around the square. JK Rowling gave an interview on arrival, she came with her partner Neil Murray. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) when he arrived, he was amazed and overwhelmed by the whole event; he was really excited to be at the premiere. After Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), and Emma Watson (Hermione) arrived, and gave an interview, they all had their photos taken together with JK Rowling. Then Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), and Christopher Columbus (movie director) also said a few words when they arrived. Christopher Columbus was carrying a small girl, I assume was his child, she was very camera shy, preferred to keep her face mostly hidden in Chris’s shoulder. The cinema (claims to be the largest in Europe), holds up to 2000 people. Besides the Harry Potter movie stars, lots of other people were arriving, some of these were pop stars, TV, and movie star personalities, such as movie star and singer Cher arrived. The next day Cher told on breakfast TV her opinion of the movie. She said she had never read the book, not knowing anything about the story; she was completely spellbound by it. And thought the special effects were great, and said she thought it was one of the best movies she has ever seen. So even for anyone who has never read the book, will be completely spellbound when they see the movie. Two stars I did not notice arrive at the premiere, were Alan Rickman (Snape), and Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall). Some people arrived looked really well smartly dressed for the event, others just dressed in normal day clothes. After all the stars had gone in to see the movie, above the entrance of the cinema a small firework display then took place for a few minutes, which caught everyone by surprise. Finally, the last thing we saw on the big display screens around the square was the stage inside the cinema, Chris Columbus to gave a short speech thanking everyone for making the movie possible, and JK Rowling for making it all possible. For me it was a great day out and really enjoyed seeing the event. Throughout the event there was also a strong police presence in the area. I did not stay to see the celebrities come out after the movie. Afterwards I walked to the road that is at the rear of the Odeon cinema and took a bus home. Guess what the name of the road that runs along the rear of the cinema? It's Charing Cross Road, that's the road mentioned in the Harry Potter stories.

< > 1st November. This week lots of newspapers and magazines have been full of articles about the Harry Potter movie. I have decided to put several links below, so you can read the ones I have found.

< > I read that some 12 publishers turned down the chance to publish Harry Potter. It seems even Bloomsbury Publishers who finally took on the Harry Potter book, did not expect to make a lot of money out of it. The person in charge of the Children’s books division at Bloomsbury said to Rowling at the end of a meeting with her, thought he would give her a useful advice and said to her, “You’ll never make any money out of children’s books, Jo.”

< >7th October 2001. I read a small article that said, a woman in England has passed a degree with a study of Harry Potter. Michele Fry, aged 32, her research paper was, Heroes and Heroines; Myth and Gender Roles In The Harry Potter Books. She says that Harry Potter was powerless without his friend Hermione Granger. Michele Fry said, “Hermione is the real power behind Harry Potter. Without her he could not beat the evil Voldermort.”

< > 2nd September. Warner has started making plans for a 3rd movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Here is a newspaper article you can read about the 3rd Harry Potter movie. Movie number 3 news.

< > Warner Brothers lawyers has stopped a hotel called Camelot Castle, in England, from holding Harry Potter weekend events. A newspaper article mentions that Warner Brothers own the copyright to the Harry Potter character, and Warner say the weekend events constitute a conflict of interest. The hotel owner, Mr Mappin, a Harry Potter fan says, "The whole point of the weekend events was to promote literacy for children. We held one weekend event and it was a huge success, because the children had to read the books before the arrived. We had a magician on hand to teach the basics of wizardry, spell-casting, broomstick riding, and mixing potions. We had to stop when legal letters started to arrive. I cannot see why Warner got so agitated, we are hardly a rival". The lawyers let the first weekend take place, as the children had already booked, but Warner insisted that Warner should be given appropriate credits on any publicity. Now Mr Mappin may stage weekend events featuring another wizard – Merlin, whose king was King Arthur. It is said that King Arthur was born in the area near the Camelot Castle hotel. Here is a link to the original newspaper article about the hotel’s Harry Potter weekend events. Harry Potter at Camelot Castle hotel. I also mentioned about the hotel before in an article below on 16th April.

< > 13th August. JK Rowling has spoken out against rumours that she is having problems writing book 5, and also put an end to newspaper rumours that she got married while on holiday. JK Rowling writing book 5.

< > JK Rowling has made an official complaint about being photographed while on holiday. JK Rowling and the holiday photos. These holiday photos, plus several photos from the Harry Potter movie can be seen in this week's British magazine called 'OK!'(issue number 277).

< > Harry Potter is to be used to try and attract tourist to visit Britain. On 1st April (in an article below), I wrote a joke article about JK Rowling will be asked to solve some of Britain’s problems, without thinking that it will actually happen! By using Harry Potter. Harry Potter and the British tourist industry. Within this article is a map of Britain with the places that are shown in the Harry Potter movie. Harry Potter map of Britain.

< >11 June 2001. Here is an interesting article for you to read, it's about a woman named Bryony Evens, age 31. One morning in 1996 Bryony Evens while working at Christopher Little Literary Agency was opening the usual morning post of letters and parcels. In the mail would be letters and manuscripts sent in from various people hoping that the Agency might take an interest in a story they have written. But one morning there was one manuscript Bryony Evens opened, not realising at the time she was holding a manuscript that would effect the lives of many people around the world. In the mail was the first three chapters of a children’s story sent in by J.K. Rowling, of the first book she wrote, with a letter enclosed that described in brief detail of what the story is about. I read this news article in a British newspaper 'The Times', the article was written by Anjana Ahuja. This is what Bryony Evens said when she read Harry Potter for the first time. “I read the first page and thought it was really good, so I put it aside to read later. I showed it to the reader who was in that day and she really liked it too.” Bryony then checked with her boss, and then asked Rowling to send in the rest of the manuscript to be sent in. “When it came I just couldn’t put it down. I had already decided that, even if we had rejected it, I was going to read the rest of it for my own curiosity. I remember making a mental list of what was great about it – it had a school story, the orphan with a evil stepfamily, lots of witches, wizards, a really good detective story with a twist at the end of the story. And there was nothing that had made me laugh as much on first reading since Diana Wynne Jone’s ‘Charmed Life’ in the 1970’s. Christopher Little read it overnight and we made a list of the things we thought weren’t quite strong enough, and then we wrote to JK Rowling. I thought there should be more of Neville, and Christopher wanted to know more about Quidditch. Joanne Rowling had actually taken the rules of Quidditch out because she thought it made it too technical. But there was hardly anything else. Rowling wrote back saying, that’s brilliant because I like Neville, and also Rowling put the Quidditch rules back into the story.” Copies of the revised manuscript was sent to several publishers, until finally the publishers Bloomsbury accepted it. And the rest is history. Bryony finally got a chance to me Rowling for the first time in a book signing queue in 1998, when she told Rowling who she was, and this is what Rowling wrote in Bryony’s signed book: “To Bryony – who is the most important person I’ve ever met in a signing queue & the first person ever to see merit in Harry Potter. With huge thanks. J.K. Rowling.” Only Bryony’s family knew for a long time that she was the first person in the publishing world to get to know Harry Potter. Years later someone at her new job leaked the news to a newspaper. Being a modest person she seems slightly embarrassed to be thought of as the woman who discovered J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter.

< >Harry Potter books are hitting record sales around the world in many different languages, from Albanian to Zulu. Harry Potter books around the world

< > The British pop star Geri Halliwell (ex Spice Girl) is a Harry Potter fan. You can read on this link that one of her songs on a new album was inspired by the Harry Potter stories. Geri Halliwell & Harry Potter Geri has named her small dog - Harry.

< > One other small piece of news I read in a magazine is about Nancy Stouffer, she is the author who is claiming that 'Harry Potter' was her original idea. She says Rowling copied her idea. Anyway the news I read is that JK Rowling, Scholastic Books, and Time Warner have filed a law suit against Stouffer in New York.

< > 1st May 2001. For anyone who likes writing stories or articles, and I know a lot of Harry Potter fans like writing their own stories. I found in a UK magazine called Writer’s Digest (writersdigest.com) Writer's Digest. Has a list of 101 useful web site addresses. The list includes various search engines, and lots of information sites for writers. I’m sure many of the addresses given are USA sites. 101 web sites for writers. This is another magazine web site I found in UK, aimed at young writer’s aged 5 to 18. Called Young Writer (www.youngwriter.org). Young writer's web site. If you see a magazine in a local shop that you like. Have a look over it to see if the magazine has a web site. Then you can check it out on the internet for useful information each month.

< >23 April 2001.The two books J.K. Rowling wrote for the charity event Comic Relief, called 'Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them', and 'Quidditch Through the Ages'. Many big name personalities also bought these books to read. Such as Steve Martin, Claudia Schiffer, Hugh Grant, Sting, Mark Wahlberg, Dido, Helena Bonham Carter. In a recent edition of a British weekly photo magazine called ‘OK’, it showed some photos of a few of these famous personalities reading a Comic Relief book with Harry Potter glasses on.

< > 16th April. In a wild and remote part of west of England, in an area called Cornwall, there is a hotel here called the Camelot Castle Hotel. Over Easter this hotel held a Harry Potter weekend event for 80 children. At the hotel children can imagine they are at Hogwarts School. There were lots of Harry Potter events such as, cast-a-spell competitions, quiz games, and a game of Quidditch. Also at the hotel there were King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table events. On the Easter Sunday the hotel held an event called a Dragon’s Egg, Easter Egg Hunt. The web site of the hotel will give you an idea of the place. www.camelotcastle.com

< >8th April 2001. Last year I took photos at two Harry Potter events, and I have now put them on a web site to for you to see them. I hope you find them interesting, and the site works ok! All the photos will take a few minutes to download. My Harry Potter photos

< >2nd April 2001. Hope you did not mind me writing something for April Fool's day! But it would be nice if Rowling did appear in the movie for a few minutes as a surprise guest, the movie would be an even bigger sell out. Now back to the real news, the 5th book might not be out until 2002. Because a lot of Rowling’s time has been taken up visiting the movie set, checking that the movie is true to the book. The other future movies might also delay the 6th and 7th books, if Rowling is visiting the movie set a lot. 5th book details. Someone from Bloomsbury Publishing gave their answer to a newspaper's comment (shown in the link), and said the next book will be printed when Rowling has finished writing the next book, and they are not putting a date on the book, it will be published when it suits Rowling, in her own time. The other news is that later this year an unofficial biography about J.K. Rowling is due to be published, by Michael O'Mara Books. The newspaper article I read this in says Rowling has not met the author (Sean Smith), who is writing about her life story. So I don’t think she would approve of such a book, as she prefers to live a very private life away from the media.

< > 1st April 2001! You may have read the newspaper article below that had a photo showing a meeting between J.K. Rowling and the Queen. I don't know if you noticed in the photo that they were sitting in front of a table with a lot of large papers on it. Did you know that those papers were the plans of a big new Hogwarts School that is now being built in Scotland! With the help of some of the money from the Comic Relief event. The school is due to be completed in September, in time for the first year students when they arrive. A Hogwarts School express train will leave King’s Cross station in London at the end of September, and on the same day trains will also be leaving other cities around the world also heading for Hogwarts School. The 6-year-old Harry Potter, who is mentioned in one of the articles below, will be joining Hogwarts School in 5 years time. That’s when the fun really begins at the school, because he will be asked to fight the Loch Ness monster that lives in the water near the school. At the moment the first years will not allowed near the water for fear of the monster, until Harry arrives to solve the problem. I also mentioned below in an article that there might be new postal stamps by the Royal Mail. Well, the Royal Mail has been asked to a set-up a real owl postal service for the school. Because the school is so remote in the Scottish mountains that no ordinary postman or mailman can get there. The other big news on this first day of April, is that J.K. Rowling will make a short appearance for a few minutes in the Harry Potter movie! Like the famous past movie director Alfred Hitchcock used to do, in his own movies. And later this month, the British leader (Tony Blair), will meet Rowling to talk about setting up a Ministry of Magic, to try and help to solve some of Britain’s problems by magic. It is hoped that a lot of the world’s future politicians will come from Hogwarts school, and try and solve the world’s problems by magic! There are some problems that ordinary muggle politicians can’t solve. That need to be solved urgently, such as why is there not at least one new Harry Potter book a month, or a 24-hour Harry Potter TV channel!

< >On Thursday 23rd March, the British Queen visited JK Rowling’s book publisher, Bloomsbury. I have enclosed a web page you can see a picture of Rowling and the Queen. The magical meeting. This article might only be displayed on the internet for a short period. But here is another article you can read about J.K. Rowling meeting the Queen. Queen meets Rowling.

< > A toy company called Tiger, is going to make some electronic Harry Potter toys. Such as a Harry Potter talking portrait, featuring the talking Fat Lady. Also a Harry Potter Quidditch broomstick with a LCD game built into the telescopic broom, which you can sit on and guide the broom to play a game. Read about it in the middle of this web page, where it mentions the toy company Tiger. Electronic Harry Potter toys. This article might only be displayed on the internet for a short period.

< > Nancy Stouffer, the US author was back in the news last week. She is the author who is claiming that Rowling copied her idea of the word ‘muggles’, and plus a few other similar 'Harry Potter' story words. Nancy Stouffer (also known as NS 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 is 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 visit Nancy’s book web site. It’s called Realmuggles.com. Realmuggles web site. Nancy’s book was out of print when Rowling published her first book. From what I remember, when Nancy Stouffer wanted to republish her books, a publisher refused to publish it saying that readers would confused, because JK Rowling’s books which are a best seller also use the word ‘muggles’, plus a few other similar words. Nancy Stouffer also wrote a separate series of 12 books, written between 1984 and 1988, featuring a character called ‘Larry Potter’. Nancy Stouffer’s books do not feature any wizardry. Stouffer’s book called 'The Legend of Rah and the Muggles' is going to be republished in the US by Thurman House, more than 17 years after she wrote it. A large newspaper article about Rowling and Stouffer was in a British newspaper, Daily Express on 16th March, but unfortunately there is no internet link to the article for you to read it. I have written a somthing about the history of the word ‘muggles’ at the top of my Articles page. In my opinion it’s just bad luck that by pure coincidence, that two authors in different parts of the world happen to use a series of similar words at nearly the same time in their story books. And then possibly end up having to fight it out in a court case.

< > 14th March 2001. You can see JK Rowling on the Comic Relief charity event web site; www.comicrelief .co.uk. With RealPlayer program (a free version can be downloaded if you do not have it), you can then see and listen to an interview given by JK Rowling talking about Comic Relief. JK Rowling on Comic Relief web site. If you have RealPlayer program, then just click on the small triangle button below the RealPlayer screen you see, to start the interview of JK Rowling.

< > 5th March 2001. This month will probably be one of the most memorable in JK Rowling’s life. On Friday 2nd March, JK Rowling went to Buckingham Palace, the British Queen’s residence in London to receive a medal from Prince Charles. For her work in writing the successful Harry Potter books. Every year in Britain some people receive special award medals for outstanding achievements, or great work they have done in their lives. Rowling said Prince Charles asked her about the movie, saying, “he can’t wait to see it, and he wanted to know whether it was true how I saw the story in my mind. I said it was.” Prince Charles is a huge fan of the Harry Potter books. Rowling has already been a guest of Prince Charles (the Queen’s son), at his home. Then on 22nd March, the Queen with her husband will see JK Rowling again when they visit Rowling’s publishers, Bloomsbury Publishing. Also in March, two new books written by JK Rowling for charity, go on sale on 12th March. One is called ‘Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them’. The other book is called ‘Quidditch Through the Ages’. JK Rowling at Buckingham Palace, London. On the day before Rowling received her award at Buckingham Palace, on March 1st, a 100 second preview of the Harry Potter movie was released by Warner on the internet, and was also shown on national television news. Harry Potter movie preview.

< > 28th February. The postal service in Britain is run by a company called the Royal Mail. They are thinking of printing special Harry Potter stamps and a ‘first-day souvenir envelope’ to coincide with the release of the Harry Potter movie in November. All this depends on JK Rowling giving her approval of such an idea. The Royal Mail’s idea is if they produce a range of Harry Potter stamps, they might get young people interested in a new hobby, becoming stamp collectors. They are thinking of possible ideas such as making the stamps interactive. For example, Harry Potter stamps that can hide secret messages, and also have stamps with invisible witches and wizards that appear at the touch of a warm hand. Harry’s owl, Hedwig will also appear on some stamps as part of the ‘Owl postal service’ idea to get young people writing letters to each other using the Harry Potter stamps. If Rowling does give her approval in Britain, we will have to wait and see if any other country like USA, will decide to print their own version of Harry Potter stamps.

< > 26th February. The big news is that Coca-Cola drinks company is the latest big name company to jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon phenomenon. Cola "is to sell its soft drinks to muggles" as one paper says in a world wide advertising linkup with Warner and their various merchandise in a multi-million dollar deal. This is in direct competition with Pepsi, who are using Britney Spears to sell their Pepsi drink. Cola are hoping Harry Potter can work magic for them. In part of the deal, Cola is to encourage more children to take up reading books. Apparently Rowling has put strict limits on what Cola can do with Harry Potter. Harry will not be seen drinking Cola in the movie. Cola is keeping precise details of it’s huge campaign a secret, but will start using images from the movie as its opening night, November 16th, draws nearer and as the Pottermania grows. Also Rowling has ruled out giveaway products from fast-food restaurants. Read a newspaper Cola article here.

< > 20th February 2001. The British newspaper, Daily Express, had an article that give a hint about the final three Harry Potter books JK Rowling will be writing. The heading of the newspaper article said ‘Dark future is in store for Potter’. The article says the Harry Potter stories are set to become bleaker and darker in tone as the series goes on, according to a source close to the author. The books have already moved on from the relatively comic and up-beat tone of the first book. According to Steve Kloves, the screenwriter for the first movie, who has been working closely with Rowling, the final adventure could come as a shock to fans. He said Rowling had not been affected by criticism from some Christians that her books could be seen as associated with witchcraft and possibly bad for children. Mr Kloves says in an interview for movie website Ain’t It Cool: “She just said to me, ‘Man, they haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until they get to the last book.’ The series is going dark. Very Dark”. The final novel will bring Harry to the edge of adulthood. The article mentions about the movie parts that were due to be shot at Gloucester Cathedral were delayed after objections from parishioners. Mr Kloves who is now adapting the second book for filming, says Rowling’s own personal character is unlikely to change: “From the day I first met her to today, she hasn’t changed one bit. Even after selling 30 million books, which is really cool.”

< > 13th February. A newspaper article I read had a list of names of ordinary people who by coincidence have the same name as a famous fictional character in books. One man has the name James Bond (same as the 007 British spy character). The best one is a 6-year-old boy in England; his real name is Harry Potter! Ahhhhhh! What are Warner Brothers going to do about his name! Are they going to send him a letter and demand that he hand over to them his name, by telling him that Warner has now registered 107 copyrights on the 'Harry Potter' name! At least in school plays he can be himself as Harry Potter. There could be an interesting problem here, because JK Rowling last year said that no theater plays can done using the name 'Harry Potter'. Maybe when he grows up he might receive a written list of what he can & can't do with his own name from Warner & Rowling? Like he must not apply for a part in any future Harry Potter movies, incase people get confused which person is the real or fictional Harry Potter. Or say that he must not turn up at any of JK Rowling's future book signings and ask her to sign a book to his name, Harry Potter! If ever he did get a book signed by Rowling with the words, ‘From JK Rowling with love to Harry Potter’, those words in a book might be worth a lot of money?

< > On February 7th, a British newspaper (Daily Express) had a full-page article titled, 'Harry Potter get down to homework - minus his wand'. The article begins saying that Daniel Redcliffe, who plays Harry Potter, has to keep up his school lessons in between filming while on set. The newspaper showed one picture of him with a teacher receiving private lessons. The article did not mention anything about the young actors in the movie. The rest of the article talks mainly about the various locations around England that are being used for the movie. The Harry Potter location scouts have been searching the country for interesting landscapes and buildings for the movie. Some of the buildings that are being used in the movie are very old. One place is called Gloucester Cathedral is 900 years old. Filming also took place at another cathedral also. So when you see the movie, some of the scenes you will see are of the inside of very old buildings, and not made up stage sets. And also Gringotts Bank has been filmed inside a building in London. The filming has not been without its problems. In some places there has been complaints from the locals. At Gloucester Cathedral some of the local Christians who use the Cathedral did not like the idea of a movie about magic and witchcraft being made inside the Cathedral.

< > Another interesting newspaper article I read had the heading 'Rite or wrong, more youngsters are ditching religion for life as pagons'. It says there are now 100,000 self-proclaimed witches in Britain. Next April there is a national census due to take place in Britain (it takes place every 10 years). It is expected to show that there are now more than 225,000 practising pagans in Britain. In the year 1736 a government Witchcraft Law outlawed spiritual mediums, fortune-tellers, and faith healers, then in 1951 law was changed. And since then the number of pagans has grown. Also through TV programs like Buffy, Sabrina, and The Teenage Witch, has got teenagers to write or call the Pagan Federation in Britain. Making it the fastest growing religion in Britain.

< > On 4th February, I read an article that had a heading 'Potter fans will hate me!'. It's about the actress who till play the part as Aunt Petunia (Fiona Shaw), who has spent the last few months in the movie playing the part being nasty to Harry Potter. Said that every child will dislike Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter movie. She says about the boy who is playing Dudley, "I think it's going to be awful. We are going to be so hated. So we have decided to all go to the opening movie together, possibly in costume, just to be able to resist the world". She says, "The film is very exciting and beautifully directed by Christopher Columbus". Also she says "I may not be so happy when I get bombarded with eggs when I get off a plane, but it's a great honour to be part of a cultural touchstone". Anyway lets hope she don't get any eggs! We may need her for the next movie!

< > 30th January 2001. I read in a British paper Daily Express on 29th January, that this coming month March, will be a very important month for JK Rowling. Every year in Britain some people receive special awards for outstanding achievements, or great work they have done in their lives. Last June in what was known as The Queen’s Birthday Honours List, JK Rowling’s name was mentioned on the list. JK Rowling will on 2nd March go to Buckingham Palace in London, to receive her special award from the Queen. For her work in writing the successful Harry Potter books. Then on 22nd March the Queen with her husband, will see JK Rowling again when they visit Rowling’s publishers, Bloomsbury Publishing. Rowling has already been a guest of Prince Charles (the Queen’s son), at his home. And then also Rowling’s two books written of charity will be out in March.

< > I read in a newspaper that the Harry Potter calendar is Britain's top selling calendar this year, beating other calendars of pop stars such as Britney Spears and Robbie Wiliams. Just thought I'll mention someone's comment about the calendar, they said “What were the people who made up the calendar thinking! Hermione's eyes are supposed to be BROWN, not BLUE, and since when does Ron have a mush-room haricut!?!? I guess these people make the products without doing the research first!”. Jake Lipson (in US) sent me an e-mail and says "The calander in the US is a little bit better, but it still can't compete with our exellent cover art from Mary GrandPre".

< > 25th January 2001. British national paper called the 'Daily Express', dated 15th Jan 2001, had an article that said the Harry Potter movie director, Christopher Columbus own daughter Eleanor will have a part as an extra in the movie. Rumour is that she will play the part as a schoolfriend of Hermione. The paper asked Warner about it, and they said they don't comment on casting decisions. The newspaper writer made a comment that the director seems to have lined himself up for the 'Father of the Year' award for giving his daughter a part in the movie.

< >7th January 2001. Two new books written by JK Rowling for charity, go on sale on 12th March. One is called ‘Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them’. The other book is called ‘Quidditch Through the Ages’. The two new books by JK Rowling. Here in another newspaper article you can read more about Rowling and the charity event, and also you can read the how she thought up of the word ‘Quidditch’. The word Quidditch’.

< >Time Warner company has registered 107 ‘Harry Potter’ internet related names. To prevent anyone in future wanting to give their web site a Harry Potter name. The Harry Potter names. This means in future anyone wanting to give their web site a ‘Harry Potter’ related name, will have to think up a name that it is not one of the already registered among the 107 names owned now by Time Warner company.

< >There is a big article written about JK Rowling in a monthly magazine called READER'S DIGEST (www.readersdigest.co.uk) on sale in Britain. On the cover of the December issue is a picture of Rowling. On the internet, the article is several pages long. Read JK Rowling article. Reader's Digest magazine is sold world wide.

< >29th October 2000. The popularity of the Harry Potter books around the world seems to be helping to make English the cool language to learn for many people. For example I read that in Switzerland if you travel on trains, buses, and trams you will see many Swiss people with their noses stuck into the latest Harry Potter book - reading it in English, rather than a translation. Swiss children think its cool to talk English and that internet chat in cyberslang is fun. Their parents are convinced that proficiency in English is vital to their children's future career prospects. Many of the east European countries that were once under Russian rule, are dumping Russian as a second language, in favour of English.

< >25th October 2000. Here is a link to a London newspaper that has a page with a few articles you can read about Harry Potter & JK Rowling that maybe of interest. At the bottom of the page you can click on to backdated pages, to read a few more past articles about Harry Potter or Rowling Read Harry Potter & Rowling news articles. On the page you will find there are some articles that are not about Harry Potter, these you can ignore.

< >21st October 2000. JK Rowling has just started a book tour of North America, she says the next Harry Potter book may not be ready until 2002. JK Rowling book tour news.

< >18th October 2000. JK Rowling will be writing a pair of spin-off books from her Harry Potter series for a special annual UK charity event, called Comic Relief. The books will be sold worldwide. In this annual event many famous people give some of their spare time to do something for charity. An event also known as Red Nose Day (called this because people in UK can buy a plastic red nose for charity if they want to, and put it on their nose for the day just for fun), on March 16th 2001.

< >8th October 2000. JK Rowling has now donated money she made from the Harry Potter books to charity, to help lone parents. Because she herself knows what it was like to be a lone parent with very little money. JK Rowling article. JK Rowling donates money to charity another JK Rowling charity article. A British newspaper 'The Sun' did print a life story article about JK Rowling, unfortunately this has now been withdrawn. Some newspapers only keep an article on the internet for about 2 weeks.

< > I looked on a street map to see where the filming of ‘Privet Drive’ is, after reading about it on Gypsy’s site. There is a town about 30 miles west of London called Bracknell, in the town is a small street called Picket Post Close. This is being used as ‘Privet Drive’ for the movie. For Hogwarts school, its possible several locations will be used for the filming, and when the movie is complete, these locations although miles part, will appear in the movie as if they are all in one location. For example, imagine seeing Harry walking out of one building, then into another part of the school, you will not realise that the buildings maybe miles apart, but once the scenes have been edited together, it will look as if they are in one location. Some of the possible filming locations have been mentioned on the site, Filmforce. Filmforce.

< >One children’s book publisher will be trying to cash in on the Harry Potter phenomenon. It will re-print a set of popular children’s story books, called the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ by the author C.S. Lewis. He wrote a story called, ‘The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe’ Newspaper article about the books.

< > A set of 4 first edition Harry Potter books signed by JK Rowling, were sold in Scotland, at an incredible price of £23,100 (about $33,000). It has also reported that signed copies of book 4, Goblet of Fire have already been sold at £500 (about $700).

< > This Christmas could see a boom in another range of toys, conjuror tricks and magic sets being given as presents. Due to Harry Potter there’s been an increase in young people wanting to learn how to do magic tricks, and join magic clubs. More people learning magical tricks. After you have read this article, you will find on the left-hand side of article page a list of links to more news you can read.

< > Here is more news from another newspaper. Click here to read more news about the actors At the bottom of the article are links to more news for you to read.

< >JK Rowling is now the highest paid woman in the UK, and in this article you can read that her first book was rejected by 8 publishers before Bloomsbury book publishers decided to take a chance with it. They might have thought “well most of the big boys have rejected this book, and we are only a small publisher, what have we got to loose? We might get lucky, and make a bit of a profit. Anyway this unknown author living like ‘Cinderella’ in her cold home, could do with some money to pay for her heating bills, and buy some writing paper, and who knows what the future may hold for her?”. JK Rowling is the top money earner.

< >14th August 2000. Here also you can read that in book 4 Rowling rewrote chapter 9, 13 times before she was satisfied that it was right, and at one point she thought chapter 9 would never get done. A perfectionist! - even Hermione would not go to that extreme! Even though Hermione's character is modelled on the author herself.

< >A multi-million dollar deal has been signed to make Harry Potter into a computer and internet games. There is a vast amount of Harry Potter story information that Rowling thought of, that were never put into the books. For example, there are lots of characters she created, but never used them. Also in her mind Hogwarts school is a much bigger place than it is in the books. And also she thought of more details about the Forbidden Forest that were never included in the books. It seems there are plans now to add all this information into the computer games, and this could make Harry Potter into the largest selling video and computer game the world has ever seen. You can read it in this newspaper article. multi-million deal Also at the bottom of this newspaper article is a search engine window, you can later type in the name ‘Harry Potter’ in it, and this will give you a list of a few past newspaper articles you may have not read.

< >Pokenmon craze could soon be replaced by Harry Potter products. Manufacturing licenses have been granted to the world’s three biggest toy manufactures to make Harry Potter products. There will be two lines of products; one range based on JK Rowling’s books, and the other based on the Warner Brothers movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

< >Harry Potter will be transformed into a computer game, you can read all about it in this news article. Harry Potter computer game.

< >I counted that Rowling must have done a minimum of 18 hours of book signing around Britain since 8th July. That's 1 hour for each place she visited, by steam train, and the bookstore visits. Last year when book 3 came out, if I remember, Rowling did most of her book publicity signing in the US.

< >On 8th July 2000, the day when the 4th book came out. Bloomsbury ( JK Rowling’s publishers), created a new platform at King’s Cross station in London – platform 9 ¾., complete with steam train to launch the book. The train then left at 11-27am with Rowling on it, to spend 3 days travelling around Britain (via Didcot, Kidderminster, Manchester, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, and finally Perth in Scotland), fans were be able to board the train and buy copies of the book. JK Rowling was on the train at each of the places to sign books. There was a simultaneous launch in America with many bookstores organising Harry Potter theme parties, which included magic shows and live owls. Later this year we should start to see Harry Potter toys, that are being made by toy makers Mattel and Hasbro. Also there will be children's soaps and shampoos made by Johnson and Johnson. I think I may have read somewhere that there might even be sweets, like the ones Harry eats on the Hogwarts Express train.

< >I thought I’d give a warning for anyone who wants to put on Harry Potter theater stage play. It may be best to find out whether Warner (the movie maker), or JK Rowling (the author), will give their permission for you to have a play. I say this because a theater in South London, Wimbledon, called the Polka Theater (300 seats), was refused permission to produce a children’s Harry Potter play for Christmas. The theater is a registered charity, and few months ago asked it’s audiences what stage play they would like to see, a lot said they wanted to see a play based on Harry Potter. Permission was refused by JK Rowling, as a result of fears that a London show could have “diluted the impact of a film”. I never even heard of this theater until I read this article. The theater decided that it will do Beauty And The Beast play instead. Apparently the rules on plays are, the rights-holder of the story can be reluctant to release rights for a stage production.

< >Every year in June, in the UK, some people receive special awards for outstanding achievements, or great work they have done in their lives. Their name is then mentioned in what is known as The Queen’s Birthday Honours List. JK Rowling has been named, for her work in writing the successful Harry Potter books. She said, “I’m absolutely thrilled and delighted and feel so honoured”. We all send our best wishes to her on receiving an award for writing such a great story.

< >I read in a newspaper today, 1st of June 2000. That over the next few years we will see a lot of Harry Potter merchandise products for sale in the shops. The Barbie doll manufacture, Mattel, has started making Harry Potter games and toys that should be ready for this Christmas. JK Rowling’s name and signature could be come a trademark on many items in future. Such as greeting cards, stationery, playing cards, posters, pens, calendars, T-shirts, fridge magnets, computer games, teaching products. These are some of the possible ideas mentioned. No doubt a few Asian manufactures will be cashing in to make illegal products without her permission. I’m sure there will be something here for everyone in this list. My mystical cat Sirron, says she would like large poster of Hermione holding Crookshanks! Anyway, there will be no place for those who hate Harry Potter to hide! I can just imagine one of these people had just escaped to the darkest part of the Amazon jungle to hide. They are in their tent, and one morning they open a box of cornflakes, and out falls into their breakfast bowl a Harry Potter toy!

< >Last year on Thursday 8th July 1999, when Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban book went on sale in Britain, Bloomsbury Publishing asked the bookshops to delay the sale of the book until 3-45pm in the afternoon. Bloomsbury said this would stop kids missing school to buy the book in the morning! The TV news in the evening showed kids queuing inside one bookshop at 3-45pm shouting "...5!..4!..3!..2!..1!" as the staff got a pile of the Prisoner of Azkaban books ready on the counter.

< >In June 2000, I read a newspaper article that the Harry Potter book 4 will be competing with the Mafia this summer, when the fourth JK Rowling book was published about the same time as a book by the author Mario Puzo (who died in 1999) the book was called, Omerta. It was the third book of Puzo’s Mafia Trilogy. The first two books The Godfather, and The Last Don, sold more than 20 million copies. Was out in early July 2000. The editor of Puzo’s next book, Jonathan Karp said with a laugh. “We’re not going to be intimidated by some little kid’s book. That wizard’s going to be wearing cement shoes by the end of the summer”. I assume he means Harry Potter will have to fight for the number one spot in the book charts. I did not check to see how the book performed in the book charts, maybe the Hogwarts Express steam train has used the books as a substitute for coal! To take JK Rowling on her recent book signing tour.

< >Did you know that when JK Rowling was a child living near Bristol, England, among a gang of childhood friends she played with were two friends, who were brother and sister. Their names were IAN and VIKKI POTTER. One popular game the kids played together was dressing-up as witches and wizards. The girls would dress up as witches, and the boys would be the wizards. JK Rowling’s friend, IAN POTTER was well known as the mischief-maker. He was always playing tricks on his friends. So he became the perfect inspiration for JK Rowling’s wizard character Harry Potter, who is always getting into trouble. JK Rowling said she liked the name Potter. Hermione Granger is modelled after herself, an exaggerated version. Ron Weasley (Harry’s best friend) is based on Sean Harris, a good friend of Rowling, and her daughter’s godfather. To read more about IAN and VIKKI POTTER, click on this next newspaper article, and read what they say about their childhood, and what they are doing now today. IAN and VIKKI POTTER interview

< >On Friday 10th March 2000, was World Book Day. A poll was carried out asking people in Britain to vote for their favourite author. The poll attracted 40,000 votes. Because many under 17 year olds voted, about 15,000. Many of the top listed authors are children's writers (4 out of the top 5). Number one is Ronald Dahl (who died in 1990). No.2, JK Rowling (after writing only 3 books). No.3, Terry Prathett (children & science fiction writer). No.4 Catherine Cookson (adult writer, died just a few years ago). No.5 Jacqueline Wilson (children's writer). A list of the top 50 writers were published in the survey. Almost all were 20th century writers. Except a few such as, Jane Austen (No.7), and William Shakespeare (No.50).

<>In April last year 2000, the author Nancy Stouffer claimed that JR Rowling pinched her idea of the word 'Muggles', meaning people with no magical powers. At the time she intended to file a lawsuit not only against JK Rowling, but also the publisher Scholastic, Time Warner, Mattel and Hasbro (who will make the Harry Potter toys). Also over trademark infringement, and unfair competition. Nancy Stouffer was claiming that she first used the word 'Muggles' and it's meaning in a 1984 book called, 'Rah And The Muggles'. The only people not on the lawsuit list to be sued, were Harry Potter & his friends! I could almost hear Draco Malfoy sniggering with delight. I don't know what Snape thought of it all, he was probably trying to decide who to take 150 points from! I read later that Nancy Stouffer had decided to drop her court action against JK Rowling.

< >From time to time I may repeat some past news I read about JK Rowling and Harry Potter for the benefit new readers.