J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling

Rowling writes books for charity to finish series

  November 1, 2007 at 8:10 AM ET
  Geri     BBC
  jkr, j.k. rowling, jo rowling, harry potter series, the children's voice, the tales of beedle the bard


Author of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, updatedopens in new window her site earlier today to announce that she has written a set of fairytales (The Tales of Beedle the Bard) for charity.

Each of the titles were mentioned in the seventh and final book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and six of the seven books were given as 'thank you' gifts to people who have been involved with the series for years. The seventh book will be auctioned off to raise money for her charity, The Children's Voiceopens in new window.

Rowling statesopens in new window that writing the books was a good way to say goodbye to Potter:

People kept saying to me 'you'll be glad to have a break from writing', when of course I wasn't taking a break at all.

I was literally writing out - as these are handwritten books - these new stories which has been a wonderful way to say goodbye. It's like coming up from a deep dive.

Auction house Sotheby'sopens in new window will auction the book on December 13th. A description of the book is below:

Containing clues that were to prove crucial to Harry Potter's final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the volume of five wizarding fairy-tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Only one - The Tale of the Three Brothers - is recounted in the book. Now, for the first time, JK Rowling reveals the four remaining tales.

Bound in brown morocco leather, and mounted with hand-chased silver ornaments and seven moonstones, the volume of five stories is one of just seven individual copies - each quite different from the other - hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling. In a dedication written in the front of the book, she says: "Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years. This seventh copy will be auctioned; the proceeds to help institutionalised children who are in desperate need of a voice. So to whoever now owns this book, thank you - and fair fortune be yours!"

Sotheby's believe that the work will realise a price in the region of £30,000-50,000. All proceeds from the sale will enable The Children's Voice to transform the lives of thousands of vulnerable children. The charity campaigns for child rights across Europe - particularly Eastern Europe - where over a million children and teenagers are growing up in institutions, often in unacceptable conditions. One of its central aims is to move children out of institutions and into loving families, by building systems to ensure parents can care for their own children and by improving national fostering and adoption programmes for children who are separated from their families.

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