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Why did you want to write Quidditch Through The Ages and Fantastic Beasts And
Where To Find Them? |
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They are two titles that
appear in the novels — Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find
Them is a book that Harry buys to go to Hogwarts so it's one
of his school textbooks and Quidditch Through The Ages is a library title. I always write more than I need for the books
so bits of them were just written for my own fun. So when Comic
Relief asked me to write something I thought I would just love
to write them, I just thought it would be so much fun and I was
completely correct. It was more fun than I've had writing the
others. |
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You're giving the money
raised to Comic Relief in the UK. What will they do with it? |
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The books are going to
be sold all around the world. The money that's raised in the UK
will be used partly to fund projects in the UK and partly to fund
projects in the poorest parts of Africa. The rest of the money
raised internationally will go into an international fund to help
children in the poorest countries of the world. |
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When people buy the book,
how much money will be going to charity? |
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Everyone who would usually
take a cut from the book is giving their services for free and
they're donating what would've been their proceeds to Comic Relief
which means booksellers, paper suppliers, publishers and my royalties,
everything will be going to Comic Relief, over 80% of the cover
price will be going to Comic Relief. |
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What do you like most about
Comic Relief UK? |
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Lots of things I like
about Comic Relief. They have a Golden Pound principal which means
that every pound that's given to them, or any money that's given
to them, will go directly to the causes involved. And it's fun.
There is something wonderful about the idea that laughter should
be used to combat real tragedy and poverty and suffering and it
just is the most wonderful thing. |
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Did the books take you
a long time to write? |
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Not a very long time;
I wrote them right after I'd finished Book 4, so compared to Book
4, which as you probably know is a very, very long book, they
didn't take long at all. |
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One of them has extra stuff
written in it by Harry. What's all that about? |
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That's Harry and Ron graffiti-ing
the book, as you do to your schoolbooks. You do doodle on them,
I always wrote all over mine. Teachers reading this will not be
happy that I'm saying it but you do, don't you? So they've just
scribbled things on them and said rude things in them, the name
of their favourite Quidditch team and stuff in the book. |
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Can you tell me where and
when Quidditch was invented? |
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Quidditch started in the
11th century, at a place called Queerditch Marsh which you probably
won't find marked on maps. But obviously that's because wizards
have made the place unplottable (which means you can't plot it
on a map). Originally it was quite a crude game played on broomsticks,
and over the subsequent two centuries they added more balls until
it became the game we know now. |
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Why do they have 4 balls? |
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They started off with
only 1 ball — the Quaffle, which is the ball you use for
goal scoring. Then there was the addition of the Bludgers to make
things a bit more interesting and finally you've got the Golden
Snitch. The story about the Golden Snitch is so long and convoluted
you will have to buy the book to find out. |
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Is Quidditch just as popular
as it is in England all around the world? |
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It's popular nearly everywhere,
but not so much in the Far East as they prefer the flying carpet
to the broomstick, so it's a real minority sport over there. But
in most other places it's fairly popular. The US — they have
their own magical game but, again, you have to buy the books to
find out about! |
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Can Americans play Quidditch? |
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Yes, there are a couple
of up and coming American teams but they're not a hugely accomplished
Quidditch-playing nation because they have their own broom sport
called- actually I don't think I'll say what it's called. You've
got to buy the books to find out. So it's had to compete with
the US's national broom sport so they're not as good as they might
be, sorry! |
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Have they ever won the
Quidditch world cup? |
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No, they haven't. They're
trying hard though. |
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Which is the best national
team? |
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At the moment, Bulgaria
are pretty good. Ireland are very good and Peru, surprisingly,
are also very good. |
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How many beasts are there
in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them? |
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There are 75 but that's
not including the 10 different species of dragon. So that would
be 84 if you counted them. |
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Are they all dangerous? |
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No. They range from very
dull, like Flobberworms, which just sit there and don't do anything
particularly interesting right up to Quintapeds, which are very,
very vicious creatures. |
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What is the most dangerous
beast? |
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Well dragons, you don't
want to mess with a dragon, obviously. Then you have things like
Acromantula, which Harry has already met in Book 2, but he didn't
know it was an Acromantula when he met it. I'm not going to say
anymore, because you have to buy them book! Then there's Alethiafold,
which is the thing I would least like to be attacked by, which
I think is quite a sinister creature. It slides under doors at
night and suffocates its prey. So personally that would be my
worst one. |
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What is the most venomous
beast? |
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You don't want to be bitten
by a Doxy, which is a kind of biting fairy, and probably wise
not to be pinched by a Mackled Malaclaw either as it makes you
very unlucky after you've been pincered! |
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Which is your favourite
beast? |
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I would most like to have
a phoenix if I could choose. |
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Why's that? |
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They have all sorts of
interesting properties, which I would like. They're also very
beautiful — not that I've ever seen one, they're very shy.
Yes I'd like a phoenix most. |
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Which beasts do you find
in the United States? |
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You find quite a lot of
the magical beasts that you find in Europe in the US but you also
find the natives creatures. The Clabbert, for example, which is
a cross-between a frog and a monkey and has this glowing sort
of pustule on its head. It's a tree-dwelling beast. But you only
find Clabberts in the US. |
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Hagrid is always trying
to keep beasts that are dangerous. Are there any that are safe? |
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Yes there are quite a
few that are safe but Hagrid would just consider them very dull.
For him the whole thing is overcoming something that could kill
him. Puffskeins are a popular wizarding pet. They're these big
fluffy yellow balls of fur which don't really do much until they
get hungry and then this long tentacle comes out and goes snaking
through the house looking for food. One of its favourite foods
is bogies. It likes to put its tentacle up people's noses and
suck out their bogies, which makes it very popular with wizard
children. |
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Could Harry have a pet
dragon? |
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You can't domesticate
a dragon whatever Hagrid thinks. That's simply impossible. So
no. He's got more sense. He might get a different pet at some
point but I'm saying no more at this moment. |
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Has Harry's success shocked
you — or did you always suspect he would catch on like this? |
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It's really shocked me.
No I didn't suspect this. I thought I would be lucky to get published.
I knew that I'd written quite a long book for people of 8+. That's
why publishers kept turning me down, they kept telling me the
first book was too long. Little did they know what was coming
in Book 4, obviously! I just didn't think it would be very commercial.
I really liked it, obviously and I had enough faith to keep trying
to get published but to say this is a bit of a surprise is a bit
of an understatement. |
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What do you think of how
successful your books are in the United States? |
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It's incredible; it's
wonderful. Initially I think one of the first reviews the first
book got in America said that it wouldn't work over there. There
was too much British dialect, and British slang. They made the
point that 'The Simpsons', for example, translates very well because
the British are very exposed to American culture so we don't need
footnotes but they didn't think the reverse was true and they
didn't think that Harry would work over there- so ha-hah! |
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What was your favourite
part about promoting your book in the United States? |
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I particularly remember
the first reading I gave over there, very first tour, very first
time in America. I set off with some people from my publishers
to do a reading to about a hundred children and I was really frightened,
very, very nervous, and I remember thinking that if I was off
to a British reading I would have been quite relaxed and quite
excited as I really do like giving readings now. I don't know
why I was so nervous because they laughed in exactly the same
places and they asked exactly the same kind of questions which
I found wonderful — just people being people, there was no
difference at all. So I loved it. I would say doing readings —
enthusiastic readers I like. It was wonderful. |
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When you write about Harry,
is he based on any boy you know? |
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No he's not, Harry is
entirely imaginary. He just came out of a part of me. Ron was
never supposed to be based on anyone but the longer I wrote Ron
the more I realised that he was a lot like one of my oldest friends,
a man named Sean. The longer I wrote Ron the more I realised he
was a bit Sean-ish. Hermione is most consciously based on someone
and that person is me when I was younger. She's a bit of an exaggeration
of me but that's where she came from. |
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What parts of the success
of Harry Potter have you most enjoyed? |
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The first time I ever
had to do a reading which was to about 4 people, in fact so few
people turned up at this bookshop that the staff felt really sorry
for me and came and stood around and listened as well. I was shaking
so badly I kept missing my line. I was terrified. But since then,
I have found readings to be the most fantastic experience. I think
partly because I was writing the books in secret for so long.
For five years I was the only person who read a word of it, knew
all these things about Harry's world and his friends and so the
experience of sitting in front of all these hundreds of people
and hearing them laugh, answering their questions and they all
know my characters — the novelty still hasn't worn off and
I absolutely love it so I would say giving readings. The writing
is my favourite part that's the part I love above all else but
part of being famous I you go out and you meet your readers and
that is incredibly satisfying. |
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What parts have you least
enjoyed? |
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Journalists banging on
my front door! Don't like that at all. |
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What do most children say
when they realise you're the one who wrote the Harry Potter books? |
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The funniest ones are
the people that don't say anything at all and they stand there
staring at me and their mothers are prodding them in the back
saying, "Go on! Tell her how much you like the book!" I like those
ones. |
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Can you tell me anything
about Harry Potter no 5? |
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Well it will be a papery
object with pages inside. Harry will appear in it. The title is
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and I think that's
as far as I'm prepared to go at the moment. |
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Has Harry ever used the
Internet? |
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No. He's not allowed near
Dudley's computer and Dudley's the only one who's got a computer.
He gets beaten up if he goes too near the keyboard. So no, he's
never used the Internet. I use it a lot but not Harry. Wizards
don't really need to use the Internet but that's something that
you'll find out later on in the series. They have a means of finding
out what goes on in the outside world that I think is more fun
than the Internet. Could anything be more fun than the Internet?
Yes! |
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What would you say is to
children that is special about the two books? |
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I would say that you will
be doing real magic by buying these books, you will have in your
power by parting with £2.50, or whatever it might be in
your particular country, to transform other children's lives because
the money you hand over, over 80% of it will go to the neediest
children in the poorest parts of the world. So there is probably
never a better thing to spend your pocket money on. |
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Where and when will people
in the United States be able to get these books? |
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They'll be available in
all good bookshops on the 12th March, priced $3.99 I believe.
Buy them both. Buy several! |
