‘THE NEW JK ROWLING’ FUELS BLOOMSBURY READING BOOM

THE publisher of Harry Potter has posted record profits as the pandemic surge in reading continued.

Bloomsbury sales rose 24pc to £230m last year while profits shot up 40pc to £27m, driven by customers who bought books for ‘enlightenment and escape’ as well as students shifting to online learning.

Chief executive Nigel Newton said: ‘The pandemic made us re-evaluate how we spend our time. This has resulted in an increase in sales of books that enable us to explore our interests, and reading novels for enlightenment.’ Top sellers include fantasy fiction novel The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon ( pictured) – dubbed ‘the new JK Rowling’ – which was first published in 2019.

Others include Tom Kerridge’s Outdoor Cooking, and The Song of Achilles and Circe, both by Madeline Miller. Sarah Maas’s sales rose by 86pc.

Sales of books in the Harry Potter series rose by 5pc, 25 years after JK Rowling’s first book was published.

Bloomsbury hopes to release a special anniversary edition this month.