Date:03/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120350710200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

A bit of Rowling

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The countdown has begun for the release of The Tales of Beedle The Bard, the first new book by J.K. Rowling since the final Harry Potter book.

Translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, the book will be released worldwide on Thursday.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the book that helped Harry Potter and his friends Hermione and Ron beat Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The book has an introduction and illustration by J.K. Rowling, and includes notes on the stories by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters’ Archive, according to a press release. It said that The Tales of Beedle the Bard is published by Children’s High Level Group in association with Bloomsbury and distributed in India exclusively by Penguin Books India at a special price of Rs. 599. In 2007, J.K. Rowling produced seven individual copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Each was handwritten and illustrated on vellum, bound in brown morocco leather and mounted with semi-precious stones. Six of the books were given by the author to those closely connected to the Harry Potter books over the last 17 years; the seventh was given to CHLG and auctioned by charity at Sotheby’s in London.