August 01, 2008	Friday	Rajab 28, 1429

LONDON: A new book from J.K. Rowling, the author of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series, will go on sale to the public in December, her charity announced on Thursday.

Rowling produced seven original handwritten copies of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” giving away six to people involved with the books about the boy wizard and auctioning the seventh, which was bought for 1.95 million pounds ($3.85 million), by online retailer Amazon.

An English-language version priced 6.99 pounds will hit the shelves on Dec 4, published by Amazon and Bloomsbury in Britain and Scholastic in the United States. Amazon will also produce up to 100,000 special-edition copies aimed at replicating the look and feel of the seven original jewel-encrusted tomes.

All net proceeds from the book — expected to be about four million pounds — will be donated to the Children’s High Level Group, a charity set up by Rowling which aims to improve life for children in institutional homes in Europe.

“The Tales of Beedle the Bard” play a key role in the seventh and last Potter tome, “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.” The five wizardry fairy-tales are left to Potter’s friend Hermione Granger by headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

One of the tales appears in “Deathly Hallows,” but the remaining four are told for the first time. The 42-year-old author, who once lived on welfare, has become a billionaire, with the tales of the boy wizard translated into 64 languages.—AFP