J.K. Rowling's Blog, page 9

20 years after it was first published in the UK in 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is to be translated into its 80th language – Scots!

Publisher Itchy Coo today announced that you will soon be able to read the Scots version of the first Harry Potter book, which will be published under the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stane in October 2017

Matthew Fitt is the translator of this exciting new edition of the story. Here’s a first look at the Scots translation:

‘Mr and Mrs Dursley, o nummer fower, Privet Loan, were prood tae say that they were gey normal, thank ye awfie muckle. They were the lest fowk ye wid jalouse wid be taigled up wi onythin unco or ferlie, because they jist widnae hae onythin tae dae wi joukery packery like yon.’

The post Harry Potter to be translated into Scots appeared first on J.K. Rowling.

The new West End cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child have been transformed into their characters in a newly released set of portraits by Charlie Gray.

Seen in their wizarding world finest for the first time are Jamie Glover as Harry Potter, Emma Lowndes as Ginny Potter and Theo Ancient as their youngest son Albus; Thomas Aldridge as Ron Weasley, Rakie Ayola as Hermione Granger and Helen Aluko as their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley; and James Howard as Draco Malfoy and Samuel Blenkin as his son Scorpius Malfoy.

The new cast’s first performance at London’s Palace Theatre is on Wednesday 24th May.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child last month took home a record-breaking nine awards including Best New Play and Best Director.

For more details about Cursed Child, head to the official website, and stay tuned for news on Pottermore

The post New Cursed Child cast portraits revealed appeared first on J.K. Rowling.

It’s a big day for Wizarding World fans in the USA, as it’s confirmed that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will have its Broadway premiere in the Spring of 2018 at the redesigned Lyric Theatre in New York.

The Official Opening  will be Sunday 22 April.  Preview performances, casting and all further details will be announced in the coming months.

Tickets will go on sale in autumn of this year via the official website only, and details of how and when tickets can be purchased will be released soon.

Last month, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child became the most awarded production in the history of Britain’s Olivier Awards, winning a record-breaking nine awards including Best New Play and Best Director.

For more updates and information, you can sign up to the mailing list at www.HarryPotterThePlay.com , and keep an eye on Pottermore.com for the latest news.

The post Cursed Child Broadway Spring 2018 opening confirmed appeared first on J.K. Rowling.

The first batch of tickets for Harry Potter: A History of Magic, the exhibition coming to London later this year at the British Library, go on sale today, 3rd April, at 12pm (BST).

The exhibition opens as part of celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the first publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. From 20th October until 28th February 2018, it will be home to items from the Library’s archives, as well as original drafts and drawings from J.K. Rowling, illustrator Jim Kay and Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury. From medieval descriptions of dragons and griffins, to the origins of the philosopher’s stone, the exhibition will take readers on a journey to the heart of the Harry Potter stories.

Head over to Pottermore for a sneak peek at some of the artefacts that will be on show at the exhibition, including a handwritten first draft of the Sorting Hat song from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. 

Here’s where to get your tickets for 20 October – 31 December, and find out more about the exhibition

The post Harry Potter: A History of Magic tickets available now appeared first on J.K. Rowling.

A new edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is available today, with six extra beasts and a new foreword from the pen of Magizoologist Newt Scamander, bringing the original classic book up to date with the exciting developments in J.K. Rowling’s  Wizarding World.

The hardback book is available from Bloomsbury in the UK and Scholastic in the US, while Pottermore brings us the eBook and the first digital audiobook, narrated by Eddie Redmayne.

Familiar to fans as one of the textbooks from Harry Potter’s days at Hogwarts, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was first published in 2001. The fictional book was ‘written’ by Newt Scamander – the hero of J.K. Rowling’s debut screenplay and the film of the same name.

Other Hogwarts Library books, Quidditch Through the Ages and The Tales of Beedle the Bard, have also been brought up to date with new covers.

Proceeds from the sale of these books will go towards Comic Relief and Lumos, J.K. Rowling’s international children’s charity. Both charities aim to help some of the world’s most vulnerable children and young people to have a better life.

The post Six new fantastic beasts unleashed today appeared first on J.K. Rowling.

Bloomsbury and Scholastic today revealed award-winning illustrator Jim Kay’s cover of the third book in the Harry Potter series.

The striking cover illustration reveals Jim’s imagining of the iconic Knight Bus that whisks Harry off to Diagon Alley at the beginning of the book, in all its purple glory. And you can see more of Jim Kay’s Azkaban artwork exclusively on Pottermore.com

This new illustrated hardback edition will be published in English on Tuesday 3rd October 2017.

The post Jim Kay’s Prisoner of Azkaban illustrations revealed appeared first on J.K. Rowling.

Eddie Redmayne – Newt Scamander himself – has narrated Pottermore’s new audiobook version of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the Hogwarts textbook that inspired the film of the same name.

Like the print and eBook editions, also available on the 14th March, the digital audiobook will open with J.K. Rowling’s new foreword from Newt Scamander himself, hinting at some of what happened since his visit to New York City in 1926, and also promises six new beasts.

To find out more, and for a behind-the-scenes video with Eddie Redmayne, visit Pottermore.com https://www.pottermore.com/news/eddie-redmayne-recorded-the-new-fantastic-beasts-audiobook-as-newt-scamander

The post Eddie Redmayne narrates Fantastic Beasts library book appeared first on J.K. Rowling.

Once upon a time, JKRowling.com was a cosy corner of cyberspace where I could share things I was writing, answer readers’ questions, debunk baseless press stories and be as serious or as frivolous as I fancied on any given day. However, when I finished writing the Potter books, my website fell into disuse. I spent a few years writing, not publishing, and enjoying the quiet. A few years ago I resurrected JKR.com, but I didn’t feel the same connection to the new design and it showed, because I hardly ever wrote anything for it.

So I decided to start over. I wanted to bring my website back to what it used to be: something real and personal. This is a faithful representation of my writing desk, except that I haven’t put on the bits of stale popcorn and biscuit crumbs that usually litter the surface. Everything looks a bit tidier and cleaner than it really is, but after all, it’s only polite to make an effort for guests. The various objects littered around really do live in my writing room; some of them have sentimental value, some are practical and others have found their way in via friends and family members.

I write in a room I built in my garden, at a wooden table just like this, with a view of lawn and trees. Family members have to decide whether they’re prepared to make the effort to put on shoes or find an umbrella to come and find me, which makes it the perfect distance from the house: I’m neither accessible enough to be bothered every time a Nintendo DS gets mislaid, nor so inaccessible that I can’t be inside the house and tending to a broken leg within thirty seconds.

(I’m married to a doctor, so yes, I accept that he might be the more logical choice to deal with the broken leg, but Neil might be at work when this happens. Or maybe it’s his leg that’s broken. All right, I accept this isn’t entirely rational: I’m a worrier.)

You’ll find my Twitter feed on here, because Twitter has become for me a nice way of interacting with readers in the website-free years. It also slakes my thirst for pictures of dogs and otters, political arguments and random connections with strangers, which are hard to come by when your profession demands that you sit alone in a room for many hours a day.

I haven’t forgotten the debunking function that I found so useful on my old website, though you might not find the button right away. You’ll also find links to some of the causes and charities I support, including my own charity Lumos, and my charitable trust, Volant.

2016 has been one of the busiest professional years of my life. I didn’t plan for the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them to come out in the same year, but that’s what ended up happening, with the result that 2016 meant an almost total re-immersion in the wizarding world. I’ve been absolutely delighted with the reception of both pieces: the stakes are always very high when you return to a well-loved creation, and after almost a decade of refusing to do spin-offs or remakes, I feel overwhelming relief that both long-time fans and newcomers have enjoyed what we’ve done. Pottermore.com, the digital hub for the wizarding world, does a great job catering for anyone who wants to dig deeper into that world.

Robert Galbraith, my crime writing alter-ego, remains active, and is currently working on his fourth. There’s no publication date as yet, given how busy 2016 has been, but I’m making steady progress. Cormoran Strike fans will be glad to know that filming has already started on the TV adaptation, starring Tom Burke as Cormoran and Holliday Grainger as Robin Ellacott.

With four more Beasts movies to come, I decided my Christmas gift to wizard-lovers should be to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about the plot of the new franchise. There’s also a bonus FAQ, an oldie about Chamber of Secrets that I’ve been asked at least once a week for nine years.

I hope you enjoy your visit and if I don’t see you again before the end of December, I wish you a very happy new year!

FAQs

1.     Why couldn’t Newt just Apparate to the USA? Why did he go by boat?

Apparition becomes increasingly risky over long distances. As with most magic, much depends on the skill of the spell-caster: Apparition requires knowledge of the terrain to which one is moving, or the ability to visualise it clearly. Cross-continental Apparition would almost certainly result in severe injury or death.

Moreover, the beasts in Newt’s case had varying magical natures. Some could have Apparated with him, but others could not.

2.    Why did Newt go in through No-Maj customs?

He was transporting magical creatures at a time when this was illegal. No-Majs were far easier to fool than the wizarding checkpoint would have been.

3.    Why couldn’t Newt use ‘Accio’ to retrieve all his beasts?

‘Accio’ only works on inanimate objects. While people or creatures may be indirectly moved by ‘Accio-ing’ objects that they are wearing or holding, this carries all kinds of risks because of the likelihood of injury to the person or beast attached to an object travelling at close to the speed of light.

4.    Why isn’t Veritaserum used in interrogations?

It is, but skilled wizards can avoid its effects by using antidotes and charms. A gifted Occlumens could also resist Veritaserum.

5.    Why did ‘revelio’ undo the effects of Polyjuice Potion?

It didn’t. Grindelwald’s Transfiguration surpasses that of most wizards, so he used a spell, not a potion, to take on the appearance of Percival Graves.

6.    Why didn’t Harry Potter develop an Obscurus?

An Obscurus is developed under very specific conditions: trauma associated with the use of magic, internalized hatred of one’s own magic and a conscious attempt to suppress it.

The Dursleys were too frightened of magic ever to acknowledge its existence to Harry. While Vernon and Petunia had a confused hope that if they were nasty enough to Harry his strange abilities might somehow evaporate, they never taught him to be ashamed or afraid of magic. Even when he was scolded for ‘making things happen’, he didn’t make any attempt to suppress his true nature, nor did he ever imagine that he had the power to do so.

And finally, an oldie but a perennial favourite…

7.    Why wasn’t the Horcrux inside Harry destroyed when he was bitten by the Basilisk in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?

A Horcrux can only be destroyed if its container is damaged beyond repair. Harry was healed by Fawkes. Had he died, the Horcrux would indeed have been destroyed.

PS I’m being asked all kinds of excellent questions about Fantastic Beasts that I can’t answer right now, because the answers would give away too much about future plots. If your burning question isn’t here, you are probably safe to assume that it will be answered in the sequels!

The post Welcome to my new website! appeared first on J.K. Rowling.

J.K. Rowling’s international non-profit organisation Lumos has had an incredible year, supporting work to transform children’s lives in 21 countries, on four continents; reuniting children with families; saving lives through urgent medical care; protecting children who have been abused or trafficked and helping governments transform their systems of care.

Lumos is not an emergency response organization, but in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, Lumos did what it could to help.  Partnering with local government and NGOs in Haiti, Lumos has reached children in orphanages and vulnerable families affected by the hurricane, providing emergency food, clean water, medical care and protection for more than 1,500 children.

In the desperate struggle for survival, one 14-year-old boy was shot and seriously injured at a food distribution point.  Lumos’ partners helped get him vital medical care and set about finding his family.  He is now in a stable condition and reunited with his mother.

Lumos also had to work quickly to protect vulnerable children.  In the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, the risk of child trafficking increases dramatically, because so many children have been separated from their families. Children in orphanages and hospitals are at increased risk of being taken by organised criminals.

Lumos and partners are documenting every child in 50 of the orphanages most affected by the hurricane to ensure they have the basic care they need and to reduce the risk of the children disappearing.

This would not be possible without the funds raised by the thousands of people who supported the WeAreLumos Worldwide campaign, which launched in September with a special gala performance of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and a ‘Facebook Live’ interview with J.K. Rowling. The campaign concluded in November with thousands more supporting an online CrowdRise campaign and a benefit screening of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

https://wearelumos.org/news/jk-rowling-and-eddie-redmayne-captivate-audience-conversation-about-children%E2s-non-profit-lumos

To find our more:   https://wearelumos.org/post/message-jk-rowling

The post 2016: An incredible year for Lumos appeared first on J.K. Rowling.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, J.K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut, was released worldwide on Friday 18th November 2016.  One of the most anticipated movies of the year, it was met with praise from critics, fans and newcomers to the Wizarding World franchise alike, taking almost $700million in global box office sales to date.

Marking our introduction to a new era of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, the film has been a hit across the world, with the biggest openings ever recorded for the Wizarding World franchise in China and South Korea.  In October, J.K. Rowling revealed at a special fan screening in London that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is to be the first of five movies in a brand new, fantastical franchise of its own, following a story arc she has already plotted out.  She said at the event on 13th October 2016: ‘I’ve now done the plotting properly so we’re pretty sure it’s going to be five movies.’

A new and original story by J.K. Rowling, Fantastic Beasts was inspired by the Hogwarts textbook of the same name, written by the author’s character Newt Scamander, the wizarding world’s preeminent Magizoologist.

The film opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander, played by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne, has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures.  Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj named Jacob, a misplaced magical briefcase, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

The post Fantastic Beasts: The Movie Event of the Year appeared first on J.K. Rowling.