Harry’s back to cast a new spell on fans
IT has been nine years since it last gripped Scottish readers – but now a new wave of Pottermania is sweeping the country.
Boy wizard Harry Potter has been announced as one of 30 contenders vying for a place on the list of Scotland’s ten best-loved books.
And the news came just as fans queued up for the traditional midnight release of his latest adventure.
JK Rowling’s hero will compete with Sherlock Holmes, Miss Jean Brodie and the Trainspotting gang to feature in the all-time top ten books by a Scottish or Scottish-based author as part of the BBC’s Love To Read Campaign.
The shortlist also features works by writers including Sir Walter Scott, Iain Banks, Robert Louis Stevenson, Denise Mina and Maggie O’Farrell.
The vote, which opens on the BBC website today and runs until August 26, is taking place in partnership with The Scottish Book Trust, The Scottish Library and Information Council and The Edinburgh International Book Festival.
The results will be revealed in a BBC Scotland programme in October.
Pauline Law, executive producer of arts, said: ‘This is a list that will get people talking and reading. There is such a vast range of good writing in Scotland that choosing which books to include was incredibly difficult.’
Meanwhile, Miss Rowling proved she has lost none of her old magic as fans queued at midnight on Saturday to get their hands on the script for her new play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The show had premiered at London’s Palace Theatre earlier in the day.
Pottermaniacs from Glasgow to New York, Tokyo and Sydney fuelled incredible worldwide demand, despite the plot having been available online for weeks.