Harry Potter author donates £1m to party

Millionaire Harry Potter author JK Rowling has given a £1 million donation to the Labour Party.

The donation comes as a major boost to the cash-strapped party and its leader Gordon Brown as the annual Labour conference starts in Manchester.

Rowling, whose fortune was estimated at £560 million in this year's Sunday Times Rich List, is known to be a personal friend of Mr Brown and his wife Sarah.

Labour Party general secretary Ray Collins said: "I would like to thank JK Rowling for making this generous donation and for helping us in our work to make Britain a fairer and stronger country. We are grateful to everyone that contributes to the party and greatly appreciate this support."

Labour is struggling with debts totalling £17.8 million - much of them due to borrowing to fund the 2005 general election campaign, the most expensive in the party's history.

But a source indicated that Ms Rowling's money would not simply be swallowed up in debt repayments, but would allow the party to continue with its work.

In a statement, JK Rowling, who wrote the first of her best-selling books about boy wizard Harry Potter while an impoverished single mother, indicated that her gift was motivated by Labour's record on child poverty and Tory leader David Cameron's offer of tax breaks to married couples.

She said: "I believe that poor and vulnerable families will fare much better under the Labour Party than they would under a Cameron-led Conservative Party.

"Gordon Brown has consistently prioritised and introduced measures that will save as many children as possible from a life lacking in opportunity or choice.

"The Labour government has reversed the long-term trend in child poverty, and is one of the leading EU countries in combating child poverty."

Via ukpress

J. K. Rowling Still Has Her Magic Touch…In Court

J. K. Rowling wins court battle over Harry Potter lexicon.

“Legalus Victorium” is what some Potter fans might shout for author J.K. Rowling following a courtroom’s verdict yesterday.

On Monday a decision was reached regarding a Harry Potter guidebook written by obsessed fan Steven Jan Vander Ark. A federal judge found that Ark’s lexicon was too similar to Rowling’s work and there wasn’t enough original material for the book to be legally published, thus handing the victory to Rowling and Warner Brothers, who produce the film franchise.

According to The New York Times, the decision comes after almost five months following the four-day trial, which was dramatic in its own right. The scene included Rowling blasting Ark’s material, calling it a, “waste of money.” Following Rowling’s testimony, Ark took the stand in tears as he claimed Ms. Rowling’s words “ostracized him from the Harry Potter community.”

Ark, 50, who appears to have an unhealthy fascination with the franchise, was formerly a librarian and teacher for a Christian school in England, but he now earns a living as a full-time writer. His idea for the lexicon stemmed from his popular website dedicated to Harry Potter fiction.

After the long legal battle, Ark seemed surprisingly calm about the verdict. He still claims to be a loyal fan and would welcome a chat with the best-selling author.

Via thecelebritycafe.com

J.K. Rowling Gets Harvard Degree

'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Harvard University on Thursday.

During her commencement ceremony she told guests, "We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better."

Dozens of alumni's paid tribute to Rowling by showing up for the ceremony carrying blooms. Much props to Rowling, who created a multi billion dollar empire based on her very vivid imagination.

Via hollyscoop.com

Rowling says fan's book could endanger other authors

Author J.K. Rowling said on Wednesday publication of an unofficial encyclopedic companion to her Harry Potter books would "open the floodgates" and threaten other authors.

The British author and Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., are suing independent U.S. publisher RDR Books, which plans to publish "The Harry Potter Lexicon," a 400-page reference book written by Steve Vander Ark based on his fan Web site (www.hp-lexicon.org).

"This case is about an author's right to protect their creation," Rowling, 42, told a New York court. "If this book is allowed to be published the floodgates will open."

"Are we, or are we not, the owners of our own work?" said the author of the seven Harry Potter books that have sold about 400 million copies. "It's not just my work that is endangered."

Rowling, estimated by the Sunday Times to be worth about $1 billion, said she was outraged her work was considered fair game because it was so popular.

She has called Vander Ark's book "sloppy, lazy" work, unlike other Harry Potter companion books already published, which added original commentary and criticism.

An emotional Vander Ark, 50, wearing spectacles similar to those worn by Harry Potter, said on Tuesday his book was intended to help readers and celebrate Rowling's work. He denied accusations of plagiarism.

A lawyer for RDR books said the book by Vander Ark, a librarian who has spoken at Harry Potter conferences in several countries, would promote Rowling's series and not hurt sales.

Two literary experts testified for each side on whether Vander Ark copied too much text, citing works on authors like C.S. Lewis and James Joyce.

In closing arguments, Dale Cendali, a lawyer for Rowling and Warner, said the lexicon reproduced "tremendous amounts of text" without attribution. "There has been no testimony that it would add anything new or original," she said. "The lexicon is filled with errors."

But Anthony Falzone, a lawyer for RDR, said Rowling could not suppress a book just because she thought it was no good. "Copyright law does not permit an author to suppress a book because she doesn't like it," he said.

U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson urged the sides to settle, saying the case reflected an emerging part of copyright law with no clear precedents. "I may need a reference guide to this case," he joked.

He is expected to take several weeks to reach a decision.

Via reuters.com

JK Rowling has wardrobe malfunction at Galaxy British Book Awards

She may be a wizard with words - but Harry Potter author JK Rowling keeps getting herself in a right old muggle with her frocks.

At the Galaxy British Book Awards on Wednesday night she almost revealed everything in her Chamber of Secrets as her figure-hugging purple satin gown suddenly started Slytherin down.

Luckily her Press aide Mark Hutchinson gave new meaning to the phrase PR handout - by quickly grabbing the top of the dress to spare her blushes.

JK, who picked up the Outstanding Achievement Award at London's Grosvenor House, suffered more overexposure on a US tour last year when her dress slipped to reveal her white bra.

Via mirror.co.uk

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has admitted she had "suicidal thoughts" while suffering from depression after her first marriage broke down.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has admitted she had "suicidal thoughts" while suffering from depression after her first marriage broke down.

She said her love for her daughter had made her seek help for the depression she suffered in her mid-20s.

"We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking 'I'm a little bit miserable'," she told an Edinburgh University student magazine.

Rowling, 42, said she had found counselling "absolutely invaluable".

"I definitely had leanings towards depression from quite an early age," she said in an interview with Adeel Amini for the magazine.

She added: "Then, mid-20s, life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted.

"The thing that made me face the fact that this was not a normal state that I was in was probably my daughter."

She said she had been to see a replacement doctor because her usual GP was on holiday.

The doctor had said "if you ever feel a bit low, come and speak to the practice nurse", Rowling added.

"But two weeks later, I had a phone call in my flat from my regular GP who had looked back over the notes of what had happened while she'd been away and had been alarmed to see that I'd been sent away.

"She called me back in and I got counselling through her."

She added: "She absolutely saved me because I don't think I would have had the guts to go and do it twice."

'No shame'

The counselling she then received helped her to "get out" of her depression, she added.

"The funny thing is, I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never.

"I think I'm abnormally shameless on that account because what's to be ashamed of?"

She urged anybody suffering from depression to "go and get help".

"I went through a really rough time and I'm quite proud of the fact that I got out of that," she added.

Via bbc.co.uk

Last Harry Potter Film To Be Released In Two Parts

Seventh installment of Harry Potter films will be released in two parts to stay true to book.

To the delight of fans J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels got longer and longer as the young wizard progressed through Hogwarts School and all the tribulations that come along with being a pubescent teenage wizard. This causes a problem for the inevitable movie adaptation, since films often cut major portions of short novels. Fans complained about the first Harry Potter film installment, feeling that though it remained loyal to the book, it felt rushed and dense.

David Yates, who directed last summer’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” has come up with a solution, along with Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Pictures, which is releasing the film.

According to Reuters, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is the final installment of the series, will be released in two parts in order to stay true to Rowling’s incredibly popular book of the same name. Much like Tarantino’s Kill Bill, which appeared in two separate volumes, both Deathly Hallows films will be part of the same movie, just released as two chapters.

Harry Potter fans would likely stop me right here. “What about the sixth movie?” Not to worry. Warner Bros. President Jeff Robinov has not forgotten about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It is set for a Nov. 21 release in the U.S.

Both Deathly Hallows films will be directed by Yates and are due to arrive in 2010.

Via thecelebritycafe.com

Signed Potter books sell for £7,000

A unique set of Harry Potter books have raised nearly £7,000 at an auction for a rugby club destroyed by fire.

The seven signed books were personally donated by JK Rowling to raise funds for Portobello Rugby Club in Edinburgh.

Auctioneer Lyon and Turnbull estimated that the books would fetch £3,000 but the set, which includes a typed statement by JK Rowling, sold for more than twice the amount at £6,960.

The set was bought by an unnamed buyer from Scotland who said he would be keeping the books as an investment.

The funds will be put towards rebuilding the rugby club, which lost precious archives when it was burned down by vandals last May.

Club president Iain Goodall said JK Rowling donated the books after hearing about the fire through a friend who is a member of the rugby club committee.

He said that the result was an "unexpected windfall" for the rugby club, which will now be able to rebuild itself.

He said: "We lost everything in the fire. All the memorabilia since the club was formed in 1930 was lost.

"We only had two photographs remaining - one from 1931 and one from 1967. Every trophy, every plaque we had is gone."

Via ukpress

Rowling says she's considered another Potter novel

Author J.K. Rowling says she has considered writing another Harry Potter novel, although fans may have to wait another 10 years.

The bestselling author of the teen wizard series has hinted in an interview with Time magazine that she has had "weak moments" in which she's thought of writing an eighth book.

"If — and it's a big if — I ever write an eighth book, I doubt that Harry would be the central character. I feel I've already told his story," she said.

"But these are big ifs. Let's give it 10 years."

The seventh instalment of the wizard-in-training books — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — came out in July. It instantly became the fastest-selling book of all time, with more than 15 million copies purchased within 24 hours.

Rowling's six previous Harry Potter books sold more than 325 million worldwide.

Rowling, who Time positioned at No. 3 in its Person of the Year list, is thought to be working on an adult novel.

The 41-year-old writer hit the headlines in October after revealing that one of Harry Potter's main characters, Albus Dumbledore, is gay.

She told an audience of fans in New York City that as a young man, Dumbledore had fallen in love with Gellert Grindelwald, who later became a rival.

Rowling said her novels are really a "prolonged argument for tolerance."

The film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series, is due for release late next year.

Via cbc.ca

Amazon buys J.K. Rowling book for nearly $4 million

A handwritten book of fairy tales by the creator of the "Harry Potter" series fetched nearly $4 million from Seattle-based Amazon.com in a Sotheby's auction Thursday.

Author J.K. Rowling created the work, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," after finishing the seventh and final installment of the "Potter" books, which have sold nearly 400 million copies and been translated into 64 languages.

The book bought by Amazon is one of seven handmade copies, extensively illustrated by Rowling and bound in brown Moroccan leather. It was expected to sell for about $100,000.

Amazon spokesman Craig Berman said Amazon wants to take the book on tour to libraries and schools, though the company doesn't yet have detailed plans. Amazon representatives did not disclose where the book is being stored.

One of the book's five original stories, "The Tale of the Three Brothers" is told in the final "Harry Potter" novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

" 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' is really a distillation of the themes found in the 'Harry Potter' books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years," Rowling said in a prepared statement.

Rowling said the six other copies of the "Beedle" books have been given to people who were closely connected to the "Harry Potter" collection.

"Purchasing this book with the proceeds going to charity does, in a real tangible way, say thank you to J.K. Rowling for what she's done for readers around the world," Berman said.

Rowling said she'd donate the proceeds to The Children's Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.

Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith said "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is the company's all-time best-selling book. Smith did not disclose final sales figures, but she said Amazon received 2.2 million preorders, smashing the previous preorder record of 1.5 million set for the series' sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

"The Amazon Web sites worldwide have sold more than 12 million of the 'Harry Potter' books," she said.

Thursday night, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" had an Amazon.com sales rank of 22 and was the site's top-selling children's book.

Via nwsource.com

J.K. Rowling Fairy Tale Sells for 1.95 Million Pounds

J.K. Rowling's handwritten book of fairy tales sold for 1.95 million pounds ($3.98 million) at a London charity sale.

Sotheby's top estimate for ``The Tales of Beedle the Bard,'' one of seven copies made after Rowling finished her last Harry Potter book, was 50,000 pounds. The money will go to the Children's Voice, a charity co-founded by Rowling and Emma Nicholson, a member of the U.K. House of Lords.

The buyer was Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, an old-master dealership with many collector clients, Sotheby's said. The auction house took no commission on the proceeds, which exceeded the top estimate 39 times as about six bidders were winnowed down to two.

``It's charity, it's unique, and two people wanted it,'' said Ian Barnes, managing director of Temple Bookbinders in Oxford, England, who bid up to 1.9 million pounds for a client, he said.

Sotheby's book sale included half a dozen other Rowling items, such as drawings and first editions of Potter books. At least three of the lots didn't sell.

Harry's Success

Rowling, 42, is the only billionaire author on Forbes magazine's 2007 list of the U.K.'s wealthiest people. More than 350 million Potter books are in print worldwide, and Potter films have grossed $3.5 billion, Forbes said in March.

Sotheby's, the world's second-largest auction house, has its main salerooms in New York. The price for the leather-bound fairy tale, illustrated by Rowling with ink drawings, was a record for the author, for a children's book and for any modern literary manuscript, Sotheby's said. Manuscripts by living authors are rare in the auction room.

Christie's International will offer a set of four signed first editions of Potter novels at a top estimate of 50,000 pounds in London on Dec. 19. The record for a single Potter novel was set in May, when ``Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' sold for 27,370 pounds at London's Bloomsbury Auctions.

'Harry Potter' Fans Disappointed

"Harry Potter" fans brace yourselves. The wizardry tales of "Beedle the Bard" -- mentioned in the final book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" -- are handwritten and the illustrations are by J.K. Rowling herself. But here's the catch: Only seven of the books exist in the world!

"Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the 'Harry Potter' books during the past 17 years. This seventh book will be auctioned," Rowling explained in a recent BBC interview.

Harry Potter and his world of wizards, witches and warlocks has made Rowling a rich woman. The author has sold 350 million books and counting, been translated into 65 languages and had her work made into highly successful movies. But this time, Rowling told the BBC, the money will go to a charity in Europe close to her heart.

"I could not think of any person with less of a voice, more disenfranchised than a child with mental health issues or mental illness or mentally handicapped who has been taken from their family or given by their family to a mental institution and then placed in a cage," she said.

Rowling put pen to paper to say farewell to all things Harry Potter.

"I've been writing about the world, about Harry, Ron and Hermione, but it comes from that world. It's been partly, I didn't expect it to be, but it's been therapeutic in a way -- a nice way to say goodbye," she said.

What about those fans who won't get to enjoy the tales?

Fourteen-year-old Terrel Phelps is not too happy. "It's kind of depressing," he told ABC News, "because I know there's gonna be something in it that I really don't know yet I won't get to know, and that makes me upset."

Fourth-grader Alexis Harris from New York is more resigned. "I think it would be nice to read it but … what can you do?''

If you're thinking of bidding on the one book up for auction next month, the starting price is a mere $60,000.

But diehard "Potter" fans shouldn't be too disheartened -- Rowling owns the copyrights to her new fairy tales, and their mysteries may still one day be revealed.

And she is working on another story.

"There's a half-finished book for children, that will probably be the next thing I do, that I publish," she said. "But I am in no rush to publish at the moment."

Still, at least it's something to look forward to.

Via abcnews

JK Rowling Finishes First Post-'Harry Potter' Book

JK Rowling has completed her first book not to feature the teenaged wizard Harry Potter - but don't look for it on the best-seller chart.

The British author says only seven copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard are being printed. One will be auctioned in December to raise money for a children's charity, while the others have been given away as gifts.

Rowling herself did the drawings for the collection of five magical fairy stories, along with writing the text by hand. In a statement, Rowling said "The Tales of Beedle the Bard is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years."

Bound in brown morocco leather and mounted with silver and semiprecious stones, the book will be auctioned at Sotheby's on December 13. Starting price will be $62,000. Proceeds will go to The Children's Voice, a European children's charity.

Rowling's seven Harry Potter books have been translated into 64 languages, selling nearly 400 million copies. Tales of Beedle the Bard played a role in this year's final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As a gift left by headmaster Albus Dumbledore to Harry's friend Hermione, it provides clues which help destroy the evil Lord Voldemort.

In a BBC radio interview broadcast on November 1, Rowling said she was working on "a half-finished book for children that I think will be the next thing I publish."

On October 31, Rowling and the makers of the Harry Potter movies filed a lawsuit against RDR Books, a small U.S. publisher planning to bring out a companion volume based on the Harry Potter Lexicon fan Web site.

Rowling has said she plans to write her own encyclopedia of the wizarding world, and says the book would infringe on her intellectual property rights.

Via voanews

J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. to sue over Potter book

A book billed as an unofficial encyclopedic companion to the "Harry Potter" book series infringes copyright and attempts to cash in on the successful series, author J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. said in statements announcing a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

The 400-page book, titled the "The Harry Potter Lexicon," due to be released by RDR Books on Nov. 28 in the United States, had inappropriately referenced Rowling's fictional characters and universe, Rowling and Warner Bros. said.

"The infringing book is particularly troubling as it is in direct contravention to Ms. Rowling's repeatedly stated intention to publish her own companion books to the series and donate proceeds of such books to charity," said the lawsuit, which the plaintiff said was filed on Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan.


The suit names RDR books, a book publishing company based in Michigan, and unidentified persons as defendants and seeks damages for copyright federal trademark infringement and any profits to be gained from the book.

The company's Web site said the author of the book, Steve Vander Ark, had based the book on a Web site that Rowling herself had awarded for its excellence.

But in a statement released on Wednesday, Rowling said even though she loved Harry Potter fan sites, she said she hoped to write "the definitive Harry Potter encyclopedia, which will include all the material that never made it into the novels" and donate the proceeds to charity.

"I cannot, therefore, approve of 'companion books' or 'encyclopedias' that seek to pre-empt my definitive Potter reference book for their authors' own personal gain," she said. "The losers in such a situation would be the charities that I hope, eventually, to benefit."

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile , Research) and the distributor of the Harry Potter films, said in a statement it was seeking to protect its intellectual property rights so that "everyone can continue to enjoy Harry Potter books and films in the spirit in which they were created."

Via reuters