The artwork for the upcoming play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been released.
Published on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter website Pottermore, the images show a young boy in a nest with wings.
The play, split over two parts, is designed to be seen either on the same night, or over consecutive evenings.
Producers have also announced it is going to be a sequel to J.K. Rowling’s books, focusing on Harry Potter’s son, Albus Severus.
“While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted,” a synopsis reads.
“As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.”
Previews will start in June 2016, at the Palace Theatre in London.
Early performances will have some cheap tickets on sale for just £10 per part, rising to £15 for the official run.
Harry Potter fans have suggested the nest and wings in the picture are reminiscent of a Golden Snitch, the smallest ball used in a game of Quidditch.
The final Harry Potter book ends with an epilogue – set 19 years after the main plot concludes – featuring Harry and his now-wife Ginny seeing their son off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Previously J.K. Rowling has refused to give away many details about the plot of the play, saying she did not “want to say too much more, because I don’t want to spoil what I know will be a real treat for fans”.
A new Harry Potter movie starring Eddie Redmayne – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – based on a screenplay written by J.K. Rowling, is expected in 2016.
Harry Potter stage play will open in London’s West End in 2016, author J.K. Rowling has announced.
Called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the play will tell the “untold part” of Harry Potter’s story, including the story of the lives of his murdered parents.
However, J.K. Rowling said on Twitter the play was “not a prequel”.
The play will run at the Palace Theatre in the summer of 2016, with tickets on sale this autumn.
J.K. Rowling said she chose to make the announcement on June 26 because it was “a very special day” – the 18th anniversary of when her debut book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was first published in the UK.
However, the author was tight-lipped about the plot of the play, saying she did not “want to say too much more, because I don’t want to spoil what I know will be a real treat for fans”.
J.K. Rowling added: “To answer one inevitable (and reasonable!) question – why isn’t Cursed Child a new novel? I am confident that when audiences see the play they will agree that it was the only proper medium for the story.”
The play was first announced in December 2013, after J.K. Rowling said she had “received countless approaches” over the years “about turning Harry Potter into a theatrical production”.
Although the new story has not been written by J.K. Rowling, it is a collaboration between herself and writer Jack Thorne – who previously adapted Let The Right One In for the stage and won a BAFTA for his work on Channel 4’s This is England ’88 – and John Tiffany, who will also direct the play.
The play will be produced by Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender, and British singer Imogen Heap will provide the music.
Producers originally said the play would explore “the previously untold story of Harry’s early years as an orphan and outcast”.
“Featuring some of our favorite characters from the Harry Potter books, this new work will offer a unique insight into the heart and mind of the now legendary young wizard,” they said.
J.K. Rowling’s seven Harry Potter best-sellers were adapted into eight blockbuster movies starring Daniel Radcliffe as the boy wizard.
She is making her screenwriting debut on Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, starring Eddie Redmayne, due in cinemas next November.
Eddie Redmayne will star in Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Warner Bros has officially confirmed.
The actor will play pre-eminent Wizarding World magizoologist, Newt Scamander, who writes the famous Hogwarts School textbook that gives the film its title.
JK Rowling is making her screenwriting debut on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The film’s director David Yates said: “Eddie is a fearless actor, brimming with invention, wit and humanity.”
David Yates added: “I couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of working with him as we start this new adventure in JK Rowling’s wonderful world, and I know she feels the same way.”
JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts book, which was published in 2001, is set 70 years before the events of her bestselling Harry Potter series.
The movie follows the adventures of magizoologist Newt Scamander – a specialist in magical animals – who travels the Wizarding World to document the beasts he encounters.
Newt Scamander writes a book – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – which is then studied years later by Hogwarts students such as Harry, Ron and Hermoine.
David Yates previously directed the final four Harry Potter films, while producer David Heyman – who worked on all eight of the blockbusters – will produce the film.
Greg Silverman from Warner Bros Pictures said they were “thrilled” to have cast Eddie Redmayne – who had been widely rumored to take the part – calling him “one of today’s most extraordinarily talented and acclaimed actors”.
Earlier this year Eddie Redmayne won the best actor Oscar, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award for his performance as Stephen Hawking in biopic The Theory of Everything.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is expected to be released in 3D and Imax worldwide on November 18, 2016.
JK Rowling’s detective novels The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm, written under the name Robert Galbraith, is to be made for TV, BBC One has announced.
The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm will form the basis of the serial, which will be made with the assistance of JK Rowling.
Filming details for the series have yet to be determined.
The number of episodes for the series are still in discussion, and it is not yet clear when it will be broadcast.
The BBC together with HBO has already made a small screen version of JK Rowling’s A CasualVacancy, which is due to be aired in February.
Production company Bronte Films, which made the mini-series, will also be responsible for the new crime drama.
J.K. Rowling has released a new Harry Potter story on her website, Pottermore.
This time it’s a biography of Dolores Umbridge, the pink-loving, sweet-smiling, Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
A complex personality, Dolores Umbridge dabbled in the kind of nastiness that was plastered over with a sweet childish grin.
With her love of kittens and teacups, Dolores Umbridge often manages to hide her true nature from authority.
Dolores Umbridge first appears in the Order of The Phoenix and was not only Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts but also worked at the Ministry for Magic as Senior Under-Secretary.
Her evil was different from Lord Voldemort’s and she operated within the system.
Nonetheless her soft, fluffy exterior masks a dark, sadistic character.
It was perhaps first revealed when she made Harry Potter write lines in his own blood after giving him a magical quill that etched whatever he wrote into his skin.
J.K. Rowling reveals that Dolores Umbridge is the character she hates the most.
J.K. Rowling reveals that Dolores Umbridge is the character she hates the most
“Her desire to control, to punish, and to inflict pain, all in the name of law and order, are, I think, every bit as reprehensible as Lord Voldemort’s unvarnished espousal of evil,” she says.
J.K. Rowling’s dislike of Dolores Umbridge can be seen in some of the details in the books.
For example, Dolores Umbridge has a short stubby wand which is meant to reflect her stunted, imperfect character.
The author also says in the new Pottermore essay that Dolores Umbridge is based on a real person.
J.K. Rowling said she once shared an office with a woman who liked “pictures of fluffy kitties” as well as frills, bows and undersized handbags.
She said this woman was also “the most bigoted, spiteful champion of the death penalty”.
J.K. Rowling explains: “I have noticed more than once in life that a taste for the ineffably twee can go hand-in-hand with a distinctly uncharitable outlook on the world.
“A love of all things saccharine often seems present where there is a lack of real warmth or charity.”
It is also revealed that Dolores Umbridge is a half-blood in the 1,700 word essay.
This is important because Dolores Umbridge is particularly cruel to non-magical humans in her role as Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, where she sends many supposed muggles to Azkaban, the wizarding prison, for “stealing magic” from magical beings.
The reason J.K. Rowling chose the name Dolores Jane Umbridge is also explained.
The author writes: “Dolores means sorrow, something she undoubtedly inflicts on all around her.
“Umbridge is a play on <<umbrage>> from the British expression to <<take umbrage>> meaning to take offence.
“Dolores is offended by any challenge to her limited world view; I felt her surname conveyed the pettiness and rigidity of her character.”
J.K. Rowling published several other entries on the site on October 31, including a history of Azkaban prison and details of everyone who has held the post of Minister for Magic.
British author JK Rowling has explained the meaning behind a cryptic tweet sent earlier this week, scotching hopes that it referred to a new Harry Potter story.
On October 6, JK Rowling posted an anagram: “Cry, foe! Run amok! Fa awry! My wand won’t tolerate this nonsense.”
Some fans translated it as: “Harry Returns! Won’t say any details now! A week off! No comment.”
However, JK Rowling later confirmed that it was really the first line from the synopsis for a film screenplay she is writing.
After one follower suggested: “Newt Scamander only meant to stay in New York for a few hours”, she replied: “YES!!!!!!!!!!!! People, we have a winner!”
Newt Scamander was the fictional author of a textbook on magical animals that featured in the Harry Potter novels.
JK Rowling herself released the book, titled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, in 2001 to raise money for Comic Relief.
JK Rowling confirmed that her cryptic tweet was really the first line from the synopsis for a film screenplay she is writing
Now, Newt Scamander is going to be the main character in a film trilogy inspired by that textbook.
JK Rowling is currently working on the screenplay for the first film, which is expected to be set in 1920s New York after Newt Scamander was commissioned to travel the world and compile a guide to magical beasts.
She later tweeted that the anagram was “the first sentence of a synopsis of Newt’s story”, adding: “It isn’t part of the script, but sets the scene.”
JK Rowling then wrote: “Newt only meant to stay in New York for a few hours. Circumstances ensured that he remained… for the length of a movie, anyway. X”
The first film is due to be released in 2016.
JK Rowling has previously said: “Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.
“The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry’s gets underway.”
Author JK Rowling has published a short biography of Celestina Warbeck, a minor character from her Harry Potter books on the fan website Pottermore.com.
Celestina Warbeck is a glamorous singing sorceress resembling Shirley Bassey and a favorite of Mrs. Molly Weasley’s.
JK Rowling has published a short biography of Celestina Warbeck on the fan website Pottermore.com
The new backstory for Celestina Warbeck, who was only mentioned briefly in the series about a boy wizard, was posted online Monday along with one of her songs, recorded by a singer at the Harry Potter theme park at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida.
JK Rowling calls Celestina Warbeck one of her favorite “offstage” characters in the whole series.
The author writes that Celestina Warbeck’s special abilities include tap-dancing and an extraordinary voice that can “drown out a chorus of banshees”.
JK Rowling has revealed her crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith will eventually outnumber her Harry Potter books.
The author said her plans as Robert Galbraith were “pretty open ended” and that his books would number more than the seven Harry Potter novels she wrote.
The second novel under Robert Galbraith’s name was published in June, and she said she was half-way through writing the third.
JK Rowling was speaking at a rare public talk at Harrogate’s Crime Writing Festival.
Robert Galbraith’s novels follow private detective Cormoran Strike, a former military police investigator in the Special Investigation Branch.
JK Rowling, who began using the pseudonym for her crime writing career after completing the Harry Potter series, said the third Robert Galbraith novel would centre on returning military personnel.
JK Rowling has revealed her crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith will eventually outnumber her Harry Potter books (photo CNN)
She was interviewed on stage in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, on Friday by fellow crime author Val McDermid.
Asked whether it was true that she would write a total of seven novels under the Galbraith name, JK Rowling replied: “It’s not seven. It’s more. It’s pretty open ended.
“I really love writing these books, so I don’t know that I’ve got an end point in mind.
“One of the things I absolutely love about this genre is that, unlike Harry, where there was an overarching story, a beginning and an end, you’re talking about discrete stories. So while a detective lives, you can keep giving him cases.”
JK Rowling added: “I’m about half-way through the third [novel] and I’ve just started plotting the fourth.”
Wearing a grey suit and pink tie, which she described as “my Robert suit”, JK Rowling told the audience that she started writing under a pseudonym because: “I wanted to prove to myself that I could get a book published on the merits of the book.”
Asked why she chose to write crime stories after the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling replied: “I love crime fiction. I’ve always loved it. I read a lot of it and I think, in many ways, that the Harry Potter books are whodunnits in disguise.
“I enjoy, I suppose, the ‘golden age’ book. That’s very much what I was trying to do in these books – to take that finite number of suspects, the genuine whodunnit style, but make it very contemporary, bring it up to date, and make sure this is a credible person with a credible back story for nowadays.”
Referring to the “golden age”, JK Rowling said she was a fan of authors Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh, who wrote in the mid-20th Century.
“My very favorite of those four is Allingham, and she’s the least known,” she said.
“The Tiger in the Smoke is a phenomenal novel.”
JK Rowling is also currently working on her first film script, for Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
JK Rowling has published a new short story about Harry Potter on her Pottermore fan website, set during the Quidditch world cup final.
The 1,500-word tale is written in the style of a newspaper column by Daily Prophet reporter, Rita Skeeter.
The article reports that Harry Potter took his sons James and Albus to visit the world cup compound “where he introduced them to Bulgarian seeker Victor Krum”.
Rita Skeeter then speculates on the absence of Harry Potter’s wife Ginny at the event.
“Are cracks beginning to show in a union that the Potters are determined to promote as happy?”
JK Rowling has published a new short story about Harry Potter on her Pottermore fan website, set during the Quidditch world cup final
Quidditch is the fictional game played on broomsticks that features in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.
Harry Potter is about to turn 34 in JK Rowling’s latest story, which can be accessed by registering on the Pottermore website.
The former boy wizard now “sports a nasty cut over his right cheekbone” along with his famous lightning scar. His hair is said to be slightly greying.
There is no mention of Harry and Ginny’s third child, Lily, who is referred to in the epilogue of Rowling’s final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Hermione, who now has two children with her husband Ron, is now deputy head of the department of magical law enforcement.
Ron is now full-time at his brothers’ joke shop, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes.
JK Rowling had said in previous interviews that Ron was an auror with Harry Potter at the ministry of magic but Rita Skeeter now claims he has had to leave for unknown reasons.
Now working for his brothers’ joke emporium Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, she claims Ron has had to step away from his job at the Ministry of Magic for reasons he has not revealed to the public.
The article also refers to other well-known characters from the Harry Potter series, including Luna Lovegood and Fleur Delacour.
JK Rowling, who is a supporter of the Hacked Off campaign which is putting pressure on newspapers to put into practice the Royal Charter on press self-regulation, has also penned a tongue-in-cheek reference to the media and privacy.
“One always hesitates to invade the privacy of young people, but the fact is that anyone closely connected with Harry Potter reaps the benefits and must pay the penalty of the public interest.”
More than 450 million copies of JK Rowling’s seven Harry Potter books, the first of which was published in 1997, have been sold worldwide.
Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is to be made into a film trilogy.
JK Rowling’s book, published in 2001, was originally billed as one of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbooks.
Warner Bros chief Kevin Tsujihara persuaded JK Rowling to adapt the book for the big screen.
Last week, he told the New York Times there would be a trilogy of films based on the book, which follows a “magizoologist” named Newt Scamander.
Newt Scamander is the author of a guide to magical creatures. Set in New York, the book is neither a sequel nor a prequel, but an “extension” of Harry Potter’s “wizarding world”, JK Rowling said.
Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is to be made into a film trilogy
Last month, JK Rowling told actress Emma Watson, who played Hermione Grainger in the Harry Potter films, that she completed the draft script in 12 days.
JK Rowling herself told the newspaper that it was Kevin Tsujihara – who took over the role of CEO at Warner Bros last year – who persuaded her to adapt the book.
“We had one dinner, a follow-up telephone call, and then I got out the rough draft that I’d thought was going to be an interesting bit of memorabilia for my kids and started rewriting,” the author told the New York Times.
“When Kevin got the top job, he brought a new energy, which rubbed off. He’s a very engaging person, thoughtful and funny.”
The project, which was first announced in September 2013, will be produced by Harry Potter regular David Heyman, whose recent successes include Gravity.
“I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it,” said JK Rowling when the film was announced last year.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was written by JK Rowling between the publication of the fourth and the fifth books in the Harry Potter series. It is set 70 years before we first meet Harry Potter.
More than 450 million copies of JK Rowling’s seven Harry Potter books have been sold worldwide.
Aside from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, JK Rowling also wrote the short book Quidditch Through the Ages – another of Harry Potter’s schoolbooks. They were published in aid of Comic Relief.
Another Harry Potter spin-off book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, followed in December 2008.
J.K. Rowling is continuing to expand Harry Potter’s wizarding world with her new website, Pottermore.com.
On Friday, J.K. Rowling released the first chapter in a new, 2,400-word story about the Quidditch World Cup.
Although Quidditch has been part of Harry Potter series from the beginning, and Harry and Ron even attend the massive World Cup in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which was released in 2000, J.K. Rowling’s new story seems to take direct inspiration from the logistical struggles of the Sochi Olympics and upcoming FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
J.K. Rowling released the first chapter of a new Harry Potter story about the Quidditch World Cup
“The ICWQC [International Confederations of Wizards Quidditch Committee] has the unlucky job of regulating this contentious and anarchic competition,” J.K. Rowling writes.
“A source of vehement disagreements, a security risk for all who attend it and a frequent focus for unrest and protest, the Quidditch World Cup is simultaneously the most exhilarating sporting event on earth and a logistical nightmare for the host nation.”
The chapter goes on to list some of the most controversial rules and moments in the tournament, which stretches back to 1473, including not just the Death Eater-driven events of Goblet of Fire, but also the Attack of the Killer Forest in 1809 and Royston Idelwind and the Dissimulators of 1971.
Author JK Rowling is to make her screenwriting debut in a new Harry Potter-themed film series, Warner Bros has announced.
The first film of the series will be titled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Warner Bros said the film series was part of an “expanded creative partnership” with the best-selling author.
The eight Harry Potter films are the largest-grossing film franchise in history.
The new film will feature Newt Scamander, the fictional author of the textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, owned by Harry Potter at Hogwarts school.
Warner Bros has given no indication as to when the film could go into production.
“It all started when Warner Bros came to me with the suggestion of turning Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a film,” said JK Rowling.
“I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of Fantastic Beasts, realised by another writer was difficult.
“Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood.”
JK Rowling is to make her screenwriting debut in a new Harry Potter-themed film series
JK Rowling went on: “As I considered Warners’ proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn’t dislodge. That is how I ended up pitching my own idea for a film to Warner Bros.
“Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.
“The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry’s gets underway.”
She added: “I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it.”
Warner Bros also announced that it would serve as the worldwide TV distributor (excluding the UK) for the upcoming BBC TV adaptation of JK Rowling’s recent adult novel The Casual Vacancy. It is expected to air in 2014.
More than 450 million copies of JK Rowling’s seven Harry Potter books have been sold worldwide.
She also wrote two small volumes, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages – both named after Harry Potter’s schoolbooks within the novels. They were published in March 2001 in aid of Comic Relief.
Another Harry Potter spin-off book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, followed in December 2008.
The Harry Potter novels, about a boy wizard who survives the attack that kills his parents, became a worldwide phenomenon and were turned into eight blockbuster Warner Bros films starring Daniel Radcliffe.
The films have grossed more than $7.7 billion to date worldwide at the box office, making Harry Potter the largest-grossing film franchise in history.
JK Rowling has accepted a substantial charity donation from the law firm that revealed she was writing under a pseudonym.
The Harry Potter author brought a legal action against Chris Gossage, a partner at Russells Solicitors, and his friend, Judith Callegari.
JK Rowling was revealed as the writer of crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling in a Sunday Times article.
She had published the book under the pen name Robert Galbraith.
JK Rowling’s solicitor told Mr. Justice Tugendhat that Russells had contacted the writer’s agent after the story was published, revealing it was Chris Gossage who had divulged the confidential information to Judith Callegari.
Judith Callegari then revealed the information in the course of a Twitter exchange with a journalist.
JK Rowling has accepted a substantial charity donation from the law firm that revealed she was writing under a pseudonym
The court heard JK Rowling had been “left dismayed and distressed by such a fundamental betrayal of trust”.
Chris Gossage, Judith Callegari and Russells all apologized and the firm agreed to pay the author’s legal costs.
It also agreed to make a payment, by way of damages, to the Soldiers’ Charity, formerly known as the Army Benevolent Fund.
JK Rowling explained that she was donating the money “partly as a thank you to the army people” who helped her with research.
“But also because writing a hero who is a veteran has given me an even greater appreciation and understanding of exactly how much this charity does for ex-servicemen and their families, and how much that support is needed,” the author said.
The Cuckoo’s Calling, about a war veteran turned private investigator called Cormoran Strike, had sold 1,500 copies before it was revealed that JK Rowling was its author.
Within hours, the novel rose more than 5,000 places to top Amazon’s sales list.
JK Rowling said she would also be donating all the royalties for the book to the charity.
She said she had “always intended to give The Soldiers’ Charity a donation out of Robert’s royalties but I had not anticipated him making the bestseller list a mere three months after publication (indeed, I had not counted on him ever being there!)”.
Major General Martin Rutledge, Chief Executive of ABF The Soldiers’ Charity said they were “absolutely thrilled” by her “extraordinary generosity”.
“This donation will make a huge difference to the lives of thousands of soldiers, former soldiers and their families who are in real need. Her tremendous show of support for The Soldiers’ Charity will help to remind people of the many sacrifices made by our soldiers, long after any news of Afghanistan has left the front page,” Martin Rutledge added.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has said she feels “very angry” after finding out her pseudonym Robert Galbraith was leaked by a legal firm.
JK Rowling was revealed as the writer of crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling in the Sunday Times.
She found out the leak came from law firm Russells, whom she had assumed she “could expect total confidentiality from”.
“I feel very angry that my trust turned out to be misplaced.
“To say that I am disappointed is an understatement,” JK Rowling said in a statement.
“A tiny number of people knew my pseudonym and it has not been pleasant to wonder for days how a woman whom I had never heard of prior to Sunday night could have found out something that many of my oldest friends did not know,” she added.
JK Rowling has said she feels “very angry” after finding out her pseudonym Robert Galbraith was leaked by a legal firm
Russells Solicitors said it apologized “unreservedly”.
In a statement, it said the wife of one of its partners, Chris Gossage, had told her best friend, Judith Callegari, that Robert Galbraith was really JK Rowling.
The company said it was revealed “during a private conversation” adding “the disclosure was made in confidence to someone he trusted implicitly”.
It has been reported Judith Callegari subsequently revealed JK Rowling’s identity to a Sunday Times journalist via Twitter on July 9.
Russells continued: “Whilst accepting [Chris Gossage’s] own culpability, the disclosure was made in confidence to someone he trusted implicitly. On becoming aware of the circumstances, we immediately notified JK Rowling’s agent.”
There had been speculation leaking the name was part of a publicity campaign.
However Russells said: “We can confirm that this leak was not part of any marketing plan and that neither JK Rowling, her agent nor publishers were in any way involved.”
The Cuckoo’s Calling – believed to be the debut novel of Robert Galbraith – tells of war veteran-turned private investigator Cormoran Strike and received good reviews when it was first published.
The book had sold 1,500 copies before JK Rowling was revealed as the author, but within hours it rose more than 5,000 places to top Amazon’s sales list.
When she was revealed as Robert Galbraith, JK Rowling said she had found writing under a pseudonym “a liberating experience”.
JK Rowling issued a statement saying she had “hoped to keep this secret a little longer” but added it had “been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name”.
The Cuckoo’s Calling – JK Rowling’s “secret” crime novel – has topped book charts after it was revealed she had written it under a pseudonym.
Harry Potter novelist JK Rowling published The Cuckoo’s Calling as Robert Galbraith.
The crime novel had sold fewer than 500 copies before the secret emerged in the Sunday Times, according to Nielsen BookScan’s figures.
Within hours, the book rose more than 5,000 places to top Amazon’s sales list.
The digital version is now also at number one in the iTunes book chart.
The book was published by Sphere, part of Little, Brown Book Group which published JK Rowling’s first foray into writing novels for adults, The Casual Vacancy.
The Cuckoo’s Calling, JK Rowling’s “secret” crime novel, has topped book charts after it was revealed she had written it under a pseudonym
Little, Brown’s David Shelley confirmed to The Bookseller the publisher had ordered an “immediate reprint” with the number not yet confirmed.
JK Rowling said she had “hoped to keep this secret a little longer”.
The author described “being Robert Galbraith” as “such a liberating experience”.
A spokesman for bookseller Waterstones said: “This is the best act of literary deception since Stephen King was outed as Richard Bachman back in the 1980s.”
One reviewer described The Cuckoo’s Calling as a “scintillating debut”, while another praised the male author’s ability to describe women’s clothes.
Crime writer Peter James told the Sunday Times: “I thought it was by a very mature writer, and not a first-timer.”
Fellow crime author Mark Billingham, who reviewed the book ahead of its publication in April, said he was “gobsmacked” at the revelation.
The fictitious Robert Galbraith was supposed to have been a former plain-clothes Royal Military Police investigator who had left the armed forces in 2003 to work in the civilian security industry.
However a clue that JK Rowling was behind the novel was that she and Robert Galbraith shared an agent and editor.
In previous interviews, JK Rowling has said she would prefer to write novels after Harry Potter under a pseudonym.
Another Cormoran Strike book by Robert Galbraith is in the pipeline, to be published next year.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has secretly written a crime novel – The Cuckoo’s Calling – under the guise of male debut writer Robert Galbraith.
The British author was acclaimed for The Cuckoo’s Calling, about a war veteran turned private investigator called Cormoran Strike.
The book, published in April, has sold 1,500 copies in hardback so far.
Her secret emerged after the Sunday Times wondered how a first-time author could produce such an accomplished work.
JK Rowling said: “I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience.
“It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.”
JK Rowling has secretly written crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling under the guise of male debut writer Robert Galbraith
One reviewer described The Cuckoo’s Calling as a “scintillating debut”. Another praised the male author’s ability to describe women’s clothes.
A clue that JK Rowling was behind the novel was that she and “Robert Galbraith” shared an agent and editor.
The book was published by Sphere, part of Little, Brown Book Group which published JK Rowling’s foray into writing novels for adults, The Casual Vacancy.
There were also similarities in style between The Cuckoo’s Calling and JK Rowling’s other works.
JK Rowling said her editor, David Shelley, had been “a true partner in crime”.
Crime writer Peter James told the Sunday Times: “I thought it was by a very mature writer, and not a first-timer.”
The fictitious Robert Galbraith was supposed to have been a former plain-clothes Royal Military Police investigator who had left the armed forces in 2003 to work in the civilian security industry.
In previous interviews, JK Rowling has said she would prefer to write novels after Harry Potter under a pseudonym.
Another Cormoran Strike book by Robert Galbraith is in the pipeline, to be published next year.
JK Rowling said her next novel would be for adults and it seems she has succeeded.
Days before its official launch, excerpts from JK Rowling’s first book in the post-Harry Potter era have begun to emerge online – and it is clear that it is for grown-up eyes only.
While the full text of The Casual Vacancy is a closely guarded secret, an American journalist who has read it in the offices of publishers Little, Brown has revealed some of the book’s more risqué passages.
Far from her usual wizard descriptions of fantastical battles between good and evil, JK Rowling’s new tale is said to be one of class warfare, prostitution, heroin addiction and teen sexuality.
A female character is introduced with the description that the “leathery skin of her upper cleavage radiated little cracks that no longer vanished when decompressed”.
At another point in the book, the reader meets a “lustful boy” who sits on a school bus “with an ache in his heart and in his b****”.
And the author’s usual fans may also be shocked – if not a little perplexed – by the mention of one girl’s “miraculously unguarded v*****”.
Although some fans may be upset by the direction she has taken, JK Rowling – who has sold 450 million Harry Potter books worldwide, amassing a personal fortune of £560 million ($880 million) – insists she should be free to write about whatever she wants.
“There is no part of me that feels I represented myself as your children’s babysitter or their teacher,” she said.
“I was always, I think, completely honest.
“I’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write.”
The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling’s first adult book, is due to be published on Thursday
JK Rowling, who has three children, also revealed that she was ready for a change in genre after years of writing magical tales.
“I had a lot of real-world material in me, believe you me,” she told the New Yorker magazine.
“The thing about fantasy – there are certain things you just don’t do. You don’t have sex near unicorns. It’s an ironclad rule. It’s tacky.”
However, JK Rowling, 47, insisted her decision to write for adults was “not that I just wanted to write about… sex”.
“I think there is a through-line,” she added.
“Mortality, morality, [they are] the two things I obsess about.”
JK Rowling said she drew on her own upbringing near the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire for the novel, in which the middle-class can barely hide their loathing for the inhabitants of a neighboring sink estate.
But locals in her old home village say the portrayal of snobby residents is as much “fantasy” as Harry Potter is.
Residents in Tutshill, a small community on the English side of Chepstow, where JK Rowling used to live, said the author’s childhood could have colored her memory of village life.
JK Rowling has previously said her childhood was unhappy and she couldn’t wait to leave Tutshill.
Her mum suffered from multiple sclerosis and she had a difficult relationship with her father.
Victoria Carter, 50, told the Daily Telegraph: “I think she has a bit of a chip on her shoulder because she didn’t have a very good time in her teenage years.
“Tutshill is neither snobby nor pretentious. If it were, we wouldn’t have lived here for 22 years.”
Her husband, William, 51, a business analyst, added: “She is a fantasy writer, after all. This sounds like another of her fantasies.”
The Casual Vacancy – which is due to be published on Thursday – is already a record breaker, with the novel receiving the largest number of in-store pre-order sales this year, according to Waterstones.
It is also said to have reached well over a million online pre-orders.
J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author, has announced her first adult novel will be called The Casual Vacancy.
J.K. Rowling revealed in February that she was working on the book, and said it would be “very different” from her previous material.
The new book will be published worldwide in hardback, e-book and as an audio download and CD on 27 September.
“The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry’s success has brought me,” J.K. Rowling said.
J.K. Rowling has announced her first adult novel will be called The Casual Vacancy
The story is centred on the death of Barry Fairweather, whose unexpected passing shocks the local villagers of Pagford.
Publishers Little, Brown & Co said: “Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war.”
The publisher describes the tale as being “blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising”.
More than 450 million copies of J.K. Rowling’s seven Harry Potter books have been sold worldwide.
The novels, about a boy wizard who survives the attack that kills his parents, became a worldwide phenomenon and were turned into eight blockbuster films starring Daniel Radcliffe.
When the final installment of the book series went on sale in 2007, thousands of copies sold in minutes.
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