JK Rowling to revisit the magical world she created

 ‘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.’

Harry Potter fans rejoice! JK Rowling is returning to the world of witchcraft and wizardry but not as we know it. The author is giving scriptwriting a go now with a film based on her book ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ and its supposed author, Newt Scamander.

Rowling says:

‘Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen 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, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.’

Wands at the ready if you’re excited!

J. K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy Gets a Cover

The first adult fiction book by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling finally has a cover, as revealed on the Little, Brown website today. The cover was designed by Mario J. Pulice with illustration and hand lettering by Joel Holland.

What do you think of it? Are you excited to read the book?

THE CASUAL VACANCY OFFICIAL BLURB:

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other.

The Casual Vacancy will be published worldwide in the English language on 27th September 2012 in hardback (£20.00), ebook (£11.99), unabridged audio download (£20.00) and on CD (£30.00). It is available to pre-order now...

Source: Little, Brown

Publishers Little, Brown Reveal More Information on JK Rowling's First Book Since Harry Potter

Daily Mail

JK Rowling found success as the author and creator of Harry Potter and the wizarding world in which he lived. But now, with a new agent and a new publisher, Rowling is venturing into new territory with her first book for adults.

The book, entitled The Casual Vacancy has been dubbed 'blackly comic' by publishers Little, Brown. It is scheduled for publication in hardback, ebook, unabridged audio download and on CD on Thursday 27th September 2012.

Here is the official blurb:

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Source: Little, Brown

JK Rowling Makes Her Move Into Adult Fiction

Daily Mail

Being the creator of Harry Potter, arguably the most famous boy in the world, has its ups and downs it seems. Author J K Rowling wanted a change after all her time spent with Christopher Little as her agent and Bloomsbury Books as her publishers.

The Bookseller has today announced that Rowling has now found a new home for her first works post-Potter in Little, Brown. The people who publish Nicholas Sparks, Dorothy Koomson, Alexander McCall Smith and Rosamund Lupton will now be bringing us J K Rowling's first novel for adults.

Bookseller said:

"David Shelley, publisher, Little, Brown, will be Rowling’s editor and will be responsible for publication in the UK with Michael Pietsch, executive vice-president of Little, Brown and Company, responsible for publication in the US. The book will be published by Hachette in Australia and in New Zealand and by Hachette’s companies and normal appointed agents for the English language in other markets."

More information on the novel will be revealed later this year but according to the Bookseller, Rowling has said that it will be "very different" to the Harry Potter series. Rowling also said:

"The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry's success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher."

Rumour has it that the book will be a crime novel set in Edinburgh but as yet this is unconfirmed.

So what would you love to see Rowling do for her first adult fiction book? Or should she have stuck to writing for children - something which she clearly has a great talent for? Let me know in the comments below.

Source: The Bookseller

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Book vs Film

SPOILER ALERT please only read this if you have read the book and know the plot (or don't mind being told it!).

OK firstly I am stunned that JK Rowling actually put her name to this one with a producer credit. It's quite possibly the worst book to film conversion of the entire series. I was delighted when they decided to make it into two films as there simply is just too much in book 7 to cram into one film. There's no way they could have done it justice. And Part 1 really did well in setting the scene for Part 2. It had a much slower pace but so does the book and it's all necessary in the build up to the big dramatic finale. It's such a shame then that the finale had very little drama.

All the best bits from the book are dropped, changed or trivialised. The deaths of important characters are brushed over so quickly you barely have time to be upset for them before moving on to the next scene. Personal favourites for me - and no doubt many other fans of the books - were Mamma Weasley getting her girl on girl fight on with Bellatrix (something that in the film had no build-up to and was over in a heartbeat) and THE kiss. I hasten to add it wasn't the romance that I loved of that particular kiss but the brilliantly funny dialogue that accompanied it. Harry is there with them, Ron is worried about the elves and the two boys fight over whether now is the most opportune moment to be having a quick snog. BRILLIANT! In the film, it's a quick kiss on their own and on ya go with the fight please, thanks. Even the epilogue failed to mention Neville or even include little Lupin so brilliantly mirrored in the book by the youthful Harry. Most of the very short section was totally dropped and turned into schmaltzy nostalgia.

Altfg

Of course there are great bits too. Hermione as Bellatrix was actually very funny, especially when she says good morning to somebody in her normal voice. Also, the spectacle of it all is amazing. One part in particular sees the three running through the chaos and being met at every turn by some kind of enemy. The battle sequences are all about brilliant effects, wands at the ready. But in that lies the biggest problem of the film - they have gone with spectacle over plot. Those who haven't read the book would be totally lost I'm sure as none of it really gets explained. And for those who have read the book it is a mystery why, when such massive chunks of plot are left out, they have added so much that never existed to begin with. There is a whole new fight sequence between Voldermort and Harry that lasts ages and the whole section where Ron and Hermione disappear off to destroy the horcrux in the chamber of secrets is expanded.

What the makers of this film seem to have not realised is that the spectacle is only as good as the characters taking part. If you aren't allowed time to care then the fights just don't matter and you may as well be watching Transformers. People have grown up with these characters and seen them grow and they needed a proper and fitting send off.

The famous "I open at the close" scene is incredibly moving but rather lacking of company (weren't there loads of people in the book?) Radcliffe manages to pull that whole section off really well, I thought, given the severity of it all.

Also, for younger fans there is one particular death that was so nasty it had me cringing and looking away and I don't normally scare that easy. Man I hate that snake.

Showbiz Junkies

The one thing I can't decide is whether I would have enjoyed it more if i hadn't read the book. I really couldn't tell you. You can't unknow something and look at it that impartially. So would I see it again? Well yes actually I already have tickets to see it on Friday - perhaps it will be better in 3D? And fans of the book will of course want to see it regardless just to see more of their beloved characters on the big screen. Would I rush - hell no. Wait till it's Orange wednesday and you might feel a little less cheated.

2.5/5 FOBLES

If you're as much of a fan of the books as I am check out my blog on why they are perfect literature here. LE xx

Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince (Book vs. Film)

The sixth book in the series sees Harry really become Dumbledore's protegé. Dumbledore has clearly decided that Harry is no longer a boy and is now a man (or close enough) and starts to tell him more than he has previously. He tells him about Tom Riddle as a boy and passes on all the information he can to help him in the inevitable quest (AKA the giant elephant in the room) and starts to take him out of school on trips. Harry is also shown more of Dumbledore's memories of Tom as a child who in turn becomes more human. As the book continues, different elements of his youth are uncovered and really help Harry to better understand his nemesis. He also explains that parts of Voldemort's soul are hidden in objects and they start their search to destroy them.

Harry must also spend a lot of his free time (which is just eaten up by all his extra-curricular activities!) hanging out with his favourite teacher - Snape. Snape has been assigned the fun task of teaching Harry how to keep Voldemort out of his head, something that is now becoming far more than just the odd vision and dangerous.

Meanwhile, in the classroom Harry manages to get his hands on a ridiculously old and shabby looking text book in his potions class which he soon learns is a blessing in disguise as it has very helpful notes in the margins. Of course, Hermione morally objects and Ron just wants to copy. But the mystery remains - who does the book belong to? Who is the Half-Blood Prince?

With the book, Harry manages to go straight to the top of the class, greatly impressing new teacher Professor Slughorn - a teacher who is quite proud of his list of promising and well connected students he has taught over the years. Dumbledore gets Harry to befriend him in order to uncover a memory Slughorn is so ashamed of that he has even warped it in his own mind... but what could he be hiding? What did he tell his star pupil Tom Riddle all those years ago...?

Book 6 is made great by one of the most dramatic cliffhanger endings in the entire series. The biggest shock awaits the reader as one of the major characters is killed off and the book is left hanging, not knowing what is going to happen next...

The film was largely a good conversion and focused so much on the genius of Alan Rickman as Snape that you forgot that hardly anybody else gets much screen time. HBP also sees the introduction of the brilliantly weird and oddly cuddly Jim Broadbent as Prof Slughorn who pulls off the role perfectly. He manages to be the perfectly flawed character that JK Rowling created, who has been led astray by the glory of fame and success as so many good and decent people have been.

One of Dumbledore and Harry's trips is also fantastically dark and done so well that the end result is chilling and gripping throughout as dark, scary creatures come out of the water and after the pair. It also sees the transition as student becomes the equal to his teacher.

Then you get to the ending which was changed unnecessarily and greatly angered me. I have said before that I don't mind changes when they make sense but this one doesn't. The death scene in the book sees Harry thrown against a wall against his will, silenced with magic and covered with his invisibility cloak. He cannot move a muscle and cannot speak but he must witness the scene as it unfolds. The horror of that was gripping and you really felt him trying to leap out of his invisible prison to save the day. In the film, they had him hide out of sight. The Harry Potter we all know and love would not have stood by and done nothing, no matter what the danger to himself, unless he absolutely had no choice. It just didn't make sense and made the entire scene much less shocking. The frustrating part though is that it saved nothing in time and would possibly have worked even better on the big screen than in the book. The said death just didn't get the drama it needed.

That said, the final scene immediately after it did tug at the heart strings and was a very moving and fitting tribute.

Check out Harry Potter 7: The Deathly Hallows - Part 1 and Part 2

Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban - Book vs. Film

The third book in the series saw the world of Harry Potter get even darker than its predecessor The Chamber of Secrets and also saw the introduction of a whole bunch of new characters including the fantastically demented Sirius Black, new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Remus Lupin, the totally bonkers Professor Trelawney, the chillingly creepy dementors and the magical hipogrif Buckbeak.

Sirius Black is one of the most feared prisoners held at the magical prison of Azkaban, guarded by the terrifying dementors who don't kill you - they suck out your soul with a dementor's kiss. But Sirius has done the impossible and broken out of Azkaban and is after Harry. Of course, having been sheltered from the wizarding world until his eleventh birthday, Harry doesn't know who Sirius is or why on earth he would be after him and will soon unearth a horrific secret about how Voldermort found his parents and killed them - they were betrayed by their best friend.

Hermione and Ron begin an argument that seems neverending as Hermione's new cat takes an instant dislike to Ron's rat Scabbers and Harry is caught in the middle while dealing with his own issues (and the poor kid has bigger issues than most!). The third year students are allowed to have weekend trips to the nearby town of Hogsmeade but Harry is excluded as he has no permission slip allowing him to go, leaving him behind while all his friends go and have fun elsewhere. Hermione also becomes a little frazzled after taking on a rather demanding work load and, as is often the case in the world Harry and his friends - things are not always as they seem. The twists and turns are non-stop and will leave you guessing right to the end and every character seems to be hiding a dark secret.

This is the first book where as a reader you start to appreciate JK Rowling not just for her brilliant imagination but for her unbelievable creativity and complexity in her writing.

The film version is one of the best and most popular of the series, despite it's bad ending which is not only simplified but altered entirely from the brilliant twists of the book. Seeing the hipogrif on the big screen really is magical and the dementors are the stuff of nightmares, fantastically realised by new Director Alfonso Cuarón.

Due to the sad death of Richard Harris, the role of Albus Dumbledore was taken over by Michael Gambon who, though a brilliant actor in his own right, never managed to capture the role for me as well as Harris did. Dumbledore is a very particular character who must be powerful (as he is the only wizard feared by Voldermort) and grandfatherly. I never quite believe Gambon as the grandfather type - perhaps because Harris did it so well.

It's great to see more of Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid gets more involvement in the plot and the introduction of Emma Thompson as Professor Trelawney armed with crazy large glasses and a quirky and totally mad performance Thompson pulls off as only she can.

George Weasley: Yeah, c'mon, Ron. We'll walk you off the

Astronomy Tower and see how you come out looking.
Harry: Probably a right sight better than he normally does.

There's also some great effects and a brilliant finale as magical creatures take over their human counterparts with impressive fights and flight sequences. Oh and Hermione finally gets her own back (albeit briefly) on the nasty Draco for always calling her 'mudblood'. You go girl!

Book 4: The Goblet of Fire

Why the Harry Potter books are perfect literature

After the Harry Potter films received special recognition at the BAFTAs I baffled my housemate by clapping along with a smile on my face. She is not a Harry Potter person. I am.


I heard once that The Simpsons appeals to adults and children because there are jokes in there that appeal to one or the other. Some, the kids will laugh at and others the adult will laugh at (and the kids will not understand why they're funny). Then, when Toy Story 3 came out, one reviewer described its appeal perfectly. It appealed not just to young children but to the young child still in every adult. It is that genius that has brought the magical land of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Hogwarts to so many homes and enjoyed by children and adults alike.


But this is by no means a kiddy story, all lighthearted silliness and magic tricks. Oh no. It goes much MUCH deeper than that. The seven books show all the fun and awkwardness of adolescence but manage to look beyond the normal teen angst and put it into the most imaginative world made since the likes of Lord of the Rings. Though no language was created here by JK Rowling (not sure Parsel tongue counts as its just whistling!) new words were introduced into everyday language - muggles, hipogrifs, even the perfectly horrid insult "mudblood" used to describe those of non magic lineage.

Magical creatures came along with that such as centaurs, unicorns, giants and werewolves and the very evil and creepy dementors who suck out your soul. There are first kisses, first spells, friends, enemies, nice teachers, quirky teachers, evil teachers - all set against a magical backdrop which expands over the seven books.

But there is such a darkness to these books that it appeals to those of us who, like me, can't stand all that fluffy niceness of most children's books. Harry is an orphan and has never known his parents, people die in every book (OK not every book but close enough when you look at the overall death toll). There are bad wizards and good wizards just like there are bad and good people. Wands don't kill people, spells made by evil Azkaban jail escapees do!

I will admit to having been a total cynic on these books before having read them and only started to try them after a Spanish friend told me she had improved her English tremendously by reading them in English. The language, she told me, was basic enough that it was easier to understand than an adult book but it was interesting enough that you wanted to keep reading. So I bought one and two in Spanish and gave it a whirl. After a couple of months (and frequent glances at my Spanish-English dictionary) I was well onto my way to the fourth book - luckily not long before the fifth book came out. By the time book seven came out, I had read all six in two languages and desperately wanted to know how it would all come together at the end. The poor postman delivered my book the morning of its release and I was not heard from for the rest of the day. Surfacing early that evening, I was in love with the most phenomenal book series I have ever had the pleasure of being immersed in. I had laughed and cried with them all and it had all been worth it.


To other sceptics out there I will say this - book one and two are written for children. OK they all are really but one and two read like they are written for children. 2 is much like 1 so just watch the films and start reading at three. You will love it so much that by the time you get to the end of book 7 you will go back and read 1 and 2 just so you don't have to stop.

And to any budding linguists - it helped my Spanish so much and was fun while doing so. Who'd have thought I would gain such a bizarre vocab list - owl, wand, even the tense of shall "he-who-shall-not-be-named".

So please, read these works of literary genius and experience the world of Harry Potter for yourself. And get a wriggle on - you're going to want to watch the final film when it comes out this year!

(Click here for Part 1 film review)

LE xxx

BAFTAS at a glance

Well not the most action packed night but some absolutely brilliant moments of BAFTA fun and some really disappointing moments of sore losers. The King's Speech obviously swept the board but this is the BRITISH film awards so did we except any different really???


The funniest moment has to be when the autocue failed as Rosamund Pike presented an award with a giant piece of useless human who I'm told is a good actor - yeah clearly the guy needs a script to get anything half intelligent to come out his mouth as he left poor Rosamund to cope alone. She did well I thought till she jumped straight to the winner, totally forgetting to announce the nominations (cue a lightning fast Johnathon Woss to the stage to karate chop the envelope out of her hands before she could read it out). Priceless. But well done Rosamund for at least trying to talk without a script - shows real talent and potential to be a conversant human! Kudos!


The biggest disappointment of the night? The younger actors just looked bored. This should be a dream come true for them but they seemed bored, complacent and just plain uninterested. It was the adults that seemed to really genuinely appreciate just being there and the 14 year old star of true grit looking genuinely annoyed at non winning! Dude its your 1st film! Chill the hell out and be grateful that you were nominated. I'm sure you'll get to make a few more. Sheesh!


Obviously the sexiest man of the night had to be the delectable Gerard Butler (I'm biased I know) but he managed to be hot, funny and just plain yum as he always does. And its just so nice to hear him talking in his ACTUAL accent! Now if only I can get him to sing the next time he's on it....


Best speech has to be Helena Bonham Carter for her funny and heartwarming list of thanks, jokes and dedication to the best supporting wives (her dear mum being top of that list). I'd like to say she clearly wasn't expecting to win but maybe she's just that good an actress!

But the most sincere and touching moment of the night came from the frail waif of a man Christopher Lee as he hobbled onto the stage and gave a speech reminiscent of my brilliantly funny, witty and little old grandpa.  He is obviously well loved and respected and managed to be brilliant and not cry even when the entire place gave him a standing ovation for his award. Evidently the fall of Mordor has taken its toll on Saruman but hopefully he will dazzle in the Hobbit.

Other notable moments were the absence of the heavily pregnant Natalie Portman after she won Best Actress for Black Swan and the Harry Potter award for outstanding contribution to British Cinema which saw a shy JK Rowling cower behind David (I can't remember his surname... ;) Well done to JK for her outstanding contribution to reading.  She has single-handedly got children reading again and parents reading with them in the most imaginative and creative stories since Lord of the Rings.


Also well done to Tom Hardy for finally being recognised for being fab!!!! Best rising star - er hell yeah! After parts in Inception and Rock 'n' Rolla among others we are going to see lots more from him!!!

And why oh why did they not show more of the foreign film award - am I really the only Brit interested in this category ??? Surely not!!!!

Now onto the Oscars...

LE xx