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O medo segue o expresso de Hogwarts

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Tradução: Salas Wulfric
Revisão: Adriana Snape
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Barton, Fiona and Lesley Yarranton. “Fear Stalks the Hogwarts Express: 24-hour bodyguards for Harry Potter author as obsessive fan sends gifts and love notes,” Mail on Sunday, 9 July 2000

THE creator of publishing phenomenon Harry Potter is being protected 24 hours a day from a male stalker who has showered her with love letters and been seen standing outside her home.

Two female bodyguards have been assigned to JK Rowling while she promotes her fourth Harry Potter book which began shattering publishing records from the moment it was released at midnight on Friday.

The fan, understood to be a Scottish teacher in his 30s, has not made any specific threats to the millionaire author. But his obsessive behaviour has alarmed her advisers, and private security personnel will accompany the 34-year-old writer on her four-day round- Britain tour in a steam train.

Ms Rowling looked tired and anxious as she set off from London on the Hogwarts Express named after the special train which takes trainee wizard Harry on his adventures and which, as in the books, departed from Platform 9 3 /4 at Kings Cross.

It should have been a triumphal departure. The first British and US print run of 5.3 million copies of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire has already taken 5 million in advance orders and the Amazon Internet bookselling site totted up 370,000 sales yesterday more than six times the record set in March by John Grisham’s The Brethren.

Ms Rowling, a single mother with an eight-year-old daughter, who was penniless three years ago, can expect to earn 60 million from the new book on top of royalties from the 30 million sales of the first three, which have been translated into 31 languages.

But with the fame and fortune has come a sense of fear about the author’s safety.

At Kings Cross, and then at stops at Didcot in Oxfordshire and Kidderminster in Worcestershire, one guard stayed close by Ms Rowling’s side and another scanned the waiting crowds. It will be the same at Manchester and York today and until the tour ends in Perth. The two bodyguards, both wearing standard bullet-proof vests, will take turns to guard the author as the train stops each night in sidings.

Ms Rowling arrived to meet her fans at Kings Cross yesterday in a light blue Ford Anglia which was driven on to the platform to allow the children a chance to see the car featured in the books.

She was aware people had been queuing at bookstores all over the country which opened at midnight to begin selling and laying on snacks and drinks for tired young customers.

‘This is all a bit of a shock and I’m amazed think of a stronger word and double it,’ she said. ‘I thought about three people would like the books, including my sister and possibly my daughter. I never dreamed of this.’ But a glimpse of a possible dark side to the dream came when she walked by the barriers allowing the hundreds of children and Press photographers to take pictures.

The scrum reached a frenzy and one enthusiastic father pushed forward with his young daughter knocking a Press photographer who later claimed he was punched.

The incident blew up into an angry shouting match before the bodyguard stepped forward to tell the men to calm down and called the police over to remove the man whose daughter was now sobbing.

The author, in a purple cardigan, pat-

terned skirt and sparkly pink shoes, looked nervous and drawn. She described the pandemonium surrounding the publication as ‘complete madness’.

Her bodyguard, wearing a discreet ear-piece and never more than a few feet behind her, once again glanced around the sea of faces.

Then her eyes flickered to the windows and ceiling about the platform a final safety check before the author finally boarded the Hogwarts Express.

A spokesman for her publishers, Bloomsbury, denied they were reacting to any specific threat but admitted: ‘We are having good security at all the events. These people are looking after her while she is on tour.’ A British Transport Police spokesman said there were two incidents at Kings Cross, when a steam train buff went into the secure area for a closer look at the train and when a woman, invited by the train crew, climbed aboard. Both were asked to leave and there were no arrests. But her fans aren’t sure it’s magic. . .

Theo Stanton, 6

IT’S too big. I liked the others better because they were smaller. I dont think I will ever finish this one, even if I read it for all my life. I didn’t understand the first chapter in the Riddle house but I thought it was scary at the end when the old man dies. It is boring when he isn’t at Hog warts beca use he can t do magic when in the real world. The first two were good because he flew in a car and on Buck beak the Hippogrif f. In this one he just flies on his broomstick. I didnt manage to read very much because it was a bit boring.

Serena Dhaliwal, 7

THE first three are better because the stories are easy to understand. This one is really weird to beg in with. The end of Chapter One is exciting but I didnt like all the killing. The next chapter is a bit confusing, there is lots going on but no real story. The characters are still really funny – my mum think s I am like Hermione because I am bossy and I work hard. I always hate Malfoy and he is especially horrible in this one . I wanted to hit him.

There is so much to imagine though, I found it difficult to understand. I wish there were pictures.

Natasha Buckingham, 9

I WASN’T sure I was going to like this one at the beginning because Chapter One is so weird, I didn’t really understand it until much later in the story but then it got good again. Harrys first task is to take a g olden egg from a dragon. I knew he would be OK but I was a bit nervous for him. He is a bit more grown- up in this one – you can tell by the way he talks. Also, he is more sensible . It is harder to read than the first three because it is so long. It look s like two book s crushed into one. I was in a rush and found myself missing bits.

Andrew Forbes, 11

THE beginning was really weird and the second chapter was a bit boring. Nothing happened until the Quidditch World Cup . Ireland win , which I was really pleased about because I liked their mascots, which were leprechauns, more than the Bulgarian mascots, which were beautiful women.

The match w as really exciting, I couldn’t put my book down – Quidditch sounds much better than football. Then nothing happens for ages. I don’t think the book needed’t be so long, she could have cut all the boring bits in between the action.

Lucy Barton, 14

The first Harry Potter book was the best. It went into such vivid detail, I really wanted to go to Kings Cross and find Platform 9 3/4 . The first book was the base, the second built the characters and the third gave the back ground. So I was excited about the fourth book. Unfortunately, there were too many subplots – like Harry falling in love and the House Elves – and they took away from the main Voldemort plot. I enjoyed reading The Goblet Of Fire, but Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone is still my favourite.

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Todos a bordo do trem da publicidade

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Tradução: Naty Granger
Revisão: {patylda}
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Reid, T.R. “All Aboard the Publicity Train; Yielding to PR Plan, J.K. Rowling Hops On The Hogwarts Express,” The Washington Post, 9 July, 2000

LONDON, July 8 — With two ferocious shrieks of its whistle, a scarlet steam engine pulled away from Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station this morning, carrying the world’s most popular living author, J.K. Rowling, on a journey patterned on the magical train trips she created in her Harry Potter books.

Rowling will ride the train, dubbed the Hogwarts Express, for the next four days on a promotional tour for the latest and largest volume in the Potter saga, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” As tens of millions of young readers around the world already know, that’s the very train would-be wizards board each fall for the trip to Harry’s boarding school, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

You might well ask why the 34-year-old author needed to embark on a special train to promote her new book. This fourth volume in the series is expected to sell about 5 million copies this year, largely through word of mouth among Harry’s devoted corps of youthful fans. That means it will almost certainly be the best-selling novel of 2000. Thrillers by John Grisham, who was the best-selling novelist in English until Rowling came along, generally sell 2 million to 3 million copies in their first year. But Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, the formerly smallish British publishing house that has grown hugely on Harry’s coattails, is famous for its public relations skills. Harry Potter is by far its biggest earner. And Rowling said she is so grateful to Bloomsbury for buying the first Harry Potter book in 1996–after three other publishers had turned it down–that she was willing to give up her cherished privacy to indulge the PR types, at least for a few days.

But she didn’t have to be happy about it. This morning, in fact, the woman who invented a global literary phenomenon looked and sounded downright glum as she arrived at King’s Cross (a real station) and headed for the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 3/4 (a fictional platform in the Harry Potter stories, but the stationmaster created one for the day).

“It’s rather mad, isn’t it?” Rowling said, looking out over a vast, unruly mob of reporters and cameras from around the world. When a journalist asked if she was amazed, the renowned wordsmith grimaced and said, “I’d need a stronger word than that to describe this journey.”

You’d also need a pretty evocative word to describe the long trip that Rowling has taken in the past few years. It’s a life journey that was considerably more complex than the familiar media picture of an unemployed single mother who dashed off a children’s book in a coffee shop and rocketed to fortune and fame.

In a series of interviews in the British media last week, Joanne Kathleen Rowling–the name rhymes with “bowling”–said she can barely recognize the person in that standard profile. There was a period, just after her divorce from a Portuguese journalist in 1993, when she hung out in a coffee shop in Edinburgh, with her daughter, Jessica, in a stroller and her handwritten manuscript on the table before her. But her education–she majored in classics and French at Britain’s Exeter University–meant shewould not be out of work for long.

Before she became a published author, Rowling worked as a language teacher. She taught English in Portugal until her divorce, then moved to Edinburgh, where she was first a substitute teacher and then a high school French teacher.

She finally finished the first Harry Potter book in 1996, after slaving over it for a half-dozen years. She was thrilled when Bloomsbury bought it for a reported $15,000. Accordingly, she went along when the publishers asked her to use the initials “J.K.” rather than “Joanne,” for fear that adolescent boys would spurn the book if they knew the author was a woman.

Although the Harry Potter stories follow a great English tradition of boarding school tales, Rowling went to a public school and said she would never send her daughter, now 7, away to school. The author said that she was lonely in her school days and that Harry Potter’s studious but brave friend Hermione Granger is modeled after the young J.K. Rowling.

With the $20 million or so she is said to have earned so far from the books–including $2 million from Warner Bros. for movie rights to the first volume–Rowling has bought a large house in Edinburgh and hired a full-time secretary to help with fan mail. But she still has no car and likes to spend time at a coffee shop on the steep, winding medieval street in Edinburgh that was the inspiration for the tales’ mystical shopping street, Diagon Alley.

In addition to the rapturous response from young readers, Rowling has generally received raves from adult reviewers for her witty, eventful and moving stories. But as is standard for successful people in Britain, her story has sparked a backlash.

Literary critic Anthony Holden wrote recently in the Observer newspaper that the Rowling stories are “one-dimensional children’s books, Disney cartoons written in words, no more.” Holden complained that Harry Potter was stealing sales from more important works, including “my own action-packed life of Shakespeare.” A week after his attack, the Observer published two pages of responses, mostly from young readers, defending Rowling and accusing Holden of being jealous.

Initial reviews in Britain for Harry’s new adventure were positive. The Times of London, in the first book review ever published at the top of its front page, said “Goblet of Fire” is “funny, full of delicious parodies . . . and wildly action-packed.”

If that favorable first-day greeting pleased the author, it wasn’t obvious from the sour look on her face as she waded past the media herd at King’s Cross to board the Hogwarts Express. She may be the creator of a great fantasy world, but today she looked like a captive in the world of hype.

“I’d really love to talk to some children,” Rowling told reporters, “if I ever manage to finish with you lot.”

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Ingleses dão a autora tratamento de estrela em lançamento

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Traduzida: Frede_Potter
Revisada: {patylda}
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“English crowds give author star treatment at launching,” The Chicago Sun-Times, 9 July 2000

LONDON J.K. Rowling couldn’t find the exact word to describe her reaction as her latest Harry Potter book went on sale Saturday.

“I’m amazed-think of a stronger word and double it,” Rowling said at King’s Cross Station, where she launched the book in England.

Parents scuffled and children wept as Rowling was greeted more like a film star than a writer. She described the pandemonium surrounding her latest book as “complete madness.”

Across Britain and the United States, parents and children stayed up into the early-morning hours Saturday to get the 734-page book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It’s twice as long as previous Harry Potter stories.

“It was the hardest so far to write. It’s a long book,” Rowling said. “It’s the culmination of 10 years’ work. There was a lot of external pressure this time.

“I knew it was going to be longer than the third, but I was surprised at how long it was. That’s how long it needed to be to tell the story.”

Rowling, a single mother from Edinburgh, Scotland, knew she had shattered the record for advance orders with 5 million globally even before she embarked on the nationwide publicity tour to promote the latest adventure of her hero, a bespectacled teenage wizard.

Before leaving King’s Cross’ Platform 1-transformed into Platform 9 3/4 in honor of Harry Potter’s gateway to his mystical world-her fourth book was selling at the rate of up to 350 an hour in large bookshops in Britain.

The hoopla Saturday was “certainly not anything I ever expected, far from it. I never dreamed of this,” Rowling said.

At Waterstone’s in Piccadilly, 1,200 copies of the book were snapped up before lunchtime.

“It’s huge. It’s the fastest-selling children’s book I’ve ever known. The kids just couldn’t wait to get their hands on it,” said Becky Thomas, assistant manager at W.H. Smith.

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Harry Potter e toda loucura do falatório

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Tradução: Virag
Revisão: Adriana Snape

Dalton, Alistair. “Harry Potter and the ‘utter madness’ of hype,” Scotland on Sunday, 9 July 2000

FOR thousands of usually harassed parents it was a chance to watch Wimbledon uninterrupted, hire a video or even 40 winks in the unexpected stillness of the house.

At 640 pages, children up and down the country were happily engrossed for hours with their friend, Harry Potter. Following the hysteria of buy, buy, buy, in the morning as JK Rowling ‘s latest book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, smashed all publishing records, afternoons all over the country took on a quieter aspect. Youngsters queued outside bookshops early yesterday to get their hands on the much-awaited fourth in the Harry Potter series.

Recommended retail price was £14.99 but it was heavily discounted by up to as much as 50% for some online sales. The publishing phenomenon has already earned Rowling a personal fortune of £15m – The Goblet of Fire will add significantly to that.

Other children took part in sleepovers in shops so they could be among the first to buy the book at midnight yesterday, including 50 at Waterstone’s in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. Two fans camped outside a shop in Dundee.

Edinburgh-based Rowling, who left London yesterday on a national book-signing tour, described the pandemonium surrounding the launch as “complete madness”.

Five million copies of the book have been printed in Britain and the US, which is believed to be the biggest first run in history. Advance orders included 400,000 to internet bookseller Amazon.com, which it hoped to deliver by breakfast time yesterday.

Copies also went on sale in the United States and Canada yesterday. The book will be available in Australia and New Zealand on Friday.

In Edinburgh, six people started queuing outside James Thin in George Street at 5.30am. Andrew Smith, the shop’s assistant manager, said: “It’s been fantastic. We’ve never sold so many copies of a hardback in one day.”

Potter lookalike Archie Watson, 10, who bought his copy at nearby Waterstone’s, said: “The book is enormous. I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to read it, but I’m not going to do anything else until it’s finished.”

Waterstone’s said it had sold some 1,500 copies in its three Edinburgh stores and some 900 in its two Glasgow city centre shops yesterday, but had plenty still in stock.

In Dundee, an 11-year-old boy set up a tent outside the city’s James Thin store with his older brother to ensure they got a copy. Christopher, 20, who declined to give his surname, said: “It might seem a bit mad me going to all this effort but Harry Potter books are amazing.”

Rowling boarded a steam train renamed the Hogwarts Express, after the one which takes Potter to his boarding school for wizards, at King’s Cross station. One man was arrested in the crowded scenes. It is reported that he hit a press photographer he felt was in his daughter’s way.

Rowling later visited Didcot Railway Centre in Oxfordshire and will be in Edinburgh tomorrow night to meet 400 children at the Assembly Rooms. The tour continues to Perth station on Tuesday.

Rowling said: “I wrote the book for me. This is all a bit of a shock and I’m amazed – think of a stronger word and double it. I thought about three people would like them, including my sister and possibly my daughter.

“It was the hardest so far to write – it’s a long book. It’s the culmination of 10 years’ work. There was a lot of external pressure this time.

“I knew it was going to be longer than the third but I was surprised at how long it was, that’s how long it needed to be to tell the story.

“It’s certainly not anything I ever expected, far from it, I never dreamed of this. I put everything into these books. After my daughter, Harry is the most important thing to me.”

Jason Ormiston, marketing manager of Waterstone’s store in Argyle Street, Glasgow, said: “In my 10 years selling books I have never come across anything like this.”

Ottakars’ bookshop in Aberdeen renamed itself Pottakars for its midnight opening, with staff dressed as witches and wizards.

Children at Borders in Glasgow were treated to a breakfast of Muggle muffins and fizzy cocktails.

In London, 200 people queued outside Waterstone’s in Piccadilly late on Friday night. At the book chain’s Plymouth store, children as young as seven awaited the midnight opening.

Deb Stevenson, a senior bookseller, said: “We had the books under cover and you could hear the buzz outside. When we took off the covers, everyone was pressing up against the glass. There was a great atmosphere.”

Pottermania spread across the Atlantic, with queues of children outside bookshops in New York, Los Angeles and Washington. Steve Riggio, vice-chairman of US booksellers Barnes & Noble, said: “The level of excitement surpasses any other single bookselling event in the history of our company.”

The 640-page book, which is twice as long as its predecessor, includes a new love interest for the apprentice wizard and the death of one of the main characters.

Rowling, 34, already one of Britain’s richest women, is planning a further three Harry Potter books. The series, which was launched with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997, has sold more than 27 million books. A film of the first novel, which will use its American title, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is due to be released next year. Some 40,000 youngsters have applied for title role.

THE three winners of Scotland on Sunday’s JK Rowling writing competition were Kirsty McInally, 11, from Kilmacolm, Fiona Scott, 10, from Edinburgh, and Ciara Mannion, 8, from Dundee. The winners, picked from hundreds of entries, will meet the Harry Potter author in Edinburgh tomorrow.

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