UK and Ireland’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan revealed

Alissa Howard, a 17-year-old from Somerset, has been selected as the UK and Ireland’s biggest Harry Potter fan. Her entry was chosen as the best in the recent competition run by Bloomsbury to celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.

Alissa’s entry (attached) was selected from over 6000 posted in bookshops and libraries throughout the UK. Alissa’s piece stood out for the originality in her poetic wording and in her colourful and neat artwork. Her last line of “You inspired a generation, now that’s magical” was especially loved.

After hearing of her win Alissa said: "I was quite surprised to hear that I had won, and now I just can't believe it. It'll take time for it to sink in but I am really happy to have been chosen as the winner."

Alissa has won a family holiday to experience the magic and excitement of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ only at Universal Orlando^® Resort, plus a leather-bound and numbered 15^th Anniversary Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, signed and dedicated by J.K. Rowling. 14 runners-up have also won copies of the leather-bound and numbered 15^th Anniversary Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, signed and dedicated by the author. With only 15 of these exclusive editions being signed by J.K. Rowling for the UK, the books will be a rare and unique item for the lucky Harry Potter fans.

To celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Bloomsbury launched a nationwide competition to find the UK’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan. Bloomsbury invited fans to write a letter of no more than 50 words explaining why they love HARRY POTTER. Fans could only enter by visiting a local bookshop or library and posting their letter in the specially designed postboxes. Over 1,800 bookshops and libraries signed up to take part.

From an idea born on a train journey, to its creation in a small café in Edinburgh, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the book that started a global phenomenon.  Rejected by many publishers and with an initial hardback print run of 500 copies, it is the book that put Harry’s destiny in motion and created a whole new generation of readers. It is hard to think now that before 1997 none of us knew about Hogwarts, Quidditch or Voldemort (who was voted as the favourite literary villain in a recent Bloomsbury poll).

The competition results will be available to view from Saturday 1^st September on the HARRY POTTER competition website – www.bloomsbury.com/harrypottercompetition

Congratualtions to the 14 runners-up who are: Holly Smillie from Manchester (age 12), Julie Mason from Hounslow (age 17), Megan Wright from Derby (age 16), Nina Hamblen from Southampton (age 21), Chloe Esslemont from Cumbria (age 16), Rhiana Purnell from Oundle (age 10), Mackenzie Steele from St Helens (age 7), Catherine Smith from Glasgow (age 13), Carina Haouchine from Glasgow (age 15), Thomas James Weightman from Derby (age 8), Shafaye Abbott from Kent (age 16), Cliona Stubbs from Dublin (age 16), Alana Chalmers from West Lothian (age 14) and Charlotte Couch from Essex (age 11).

Source: Press release

Celebrating 15 years of Harry Potter magic - fascinating facts

Fifteen fascinating facts about the first Harry Potter novel

1. The Signature edition of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ is 1.5cm thick. A stack of 9,000 copies would be as high as the London Eye.

2. A stack of 1 million copies would be 15,000 metres tall which is almost twice the height of Mount Everest!

3. The Signature edition of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ is 19.7cm long. If you laid all the copies sold throughout the world end to end they would stretch further than the distance from London to Sydney.

4. The new Olympic stadium has a seating capacity of 80,000. You would be able to fill the stadium 1,125 times if you were to give everyone seated one copy of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ from the amount sold worldwide.

5. There are 223 pages in the Signature edition of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’. If you were to read a page a day for fifteen years you would be able to read the entire novel 24 and a half times.

6. If you were to read a page every hour for fifteen years you would be able to read the entire novel 589 times.

7. An anagram of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ is - He hopes hard not to prosper at Slytherin.

8. There are 1,100,086 words in the entire Harry Potter series. ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ contains only 7% of the entire word count with 77,674 words.

9. Bloomsbury’s initial hardback print run of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ in 1997 was a tiny 500 copies.

10. The name Harry Potter appears 29 times in the main text of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, whilst Voldemort appears more often with 38 mentions!

11. The sign for Platform 9 and three quarters is the only thing to appear on both the original and new covers of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’. It appears on the front cover of the original and the back cover of the latest edition.

12. Harry doesn’t say anything in the first chapter of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ as he is only a baby. His first word in the novel comes in the second chapter and is ‘nearly’.

13. Harry enters Hogwarts in Chapter seven of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ and the first teacher he meets in the school is Professor McGonagall.

14. Harry and Ron meet for the first time on page 70 of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ between platforms nine and ten at King’s Cross. Harry meets Hermione for the first time on page 79 as they travel on the Hogwarts Express.

15. In a recent poll for Bloomsbury Professor Severus Snape was voted the favourite Harry Potter character from the books. Harry came in fourth place after Hermione Granger at No.2 and Sirius Black at No. 3.