Peter Jackson column

Jul 21 2005 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

Well, she's gone and done it again.

JK Rowling continues to entrance children and adults alike, leaving rivals without the magic touch to muggle through.

Her latest Harry Potter instalment has smashed sales records on both sides of the Atlantic with almost nine million copies sold in the first 24 hours after publication.

The Potter phenomenon is truly phenomenal. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has sold 6.9 million copies in the US and more than two million over here, beating even previous JK Rowling records.

All this, of course, only adds to the success of the previous five books, which, combined with the films and merchandising, are estimated to have made the Harry Potter brand worth $1bn and reputedly JK Rowling Britain's richest woman.

She has also been hailed as, if not the book industry's saviour, then certainly someone who has done much to halt a long-term decline. At a poor time for retail generally, shops have reported a 6% year-on-year increase in book sales.

But, there is only one book left in the series, so the whole publishing industry in general, and Bloomsbury in particular, must be asking what comes next.

The most optimistic will be hoping that JK Rowling will have done so much to revive the reading habit in children that she will have created a whole new generation of bibliophiles which will sustain the industry for years to come.

Personally, I'd like to think so, but I wouldn't bet on it.

It's not that I don't share in the general enthusiasm for the books. My son started reading them as an eight-year-old six years ago and loved them. I've read them all and enjoyed them all and while you're reading this I hope to be on a beach reading the sixth.

I don't believe they are great literature, but they are great stories extremely well told.

I have heard them criticised as being too middle-class, but to my mind that is the beauty of them.

No, I just suspect that JK Rowling has hit upon a formula, even a magic formula, that will prove impossible to replicate and when Harry Potter has hung up his cape and wand, books will be left fighting their losing battle against the dark forces of video games, TV and MP3 players.