Key Potter character dies

2003-06-18 07:28

London - British author JK Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, said she was moved to tears as she killed off one of the key characters in her latest book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, due to go on sale on Saturday.

In an interview for BBC television, Rowling, 37, told how her husband Neil Murray found her in tears at their home after she had sealed the fate of the unnamed character.

The character's identity will be revealed this Saturday when the eagerly-awaited fifth book in the series hits the shops.

"I had re-written the death, re-written it and that was it. And the person was definitely dead," Rowling told BBC's Newsnight programme.

Rowling said that her husband - also unaware of the identity of the doomed character - had suggested that she should not kill off the character if it made her that upset.

"Well, it just doesn't work like that. You are writing children's books, you need to be a ruthless killer," Rowling told her husband at the time.

Rowling said she had "sweated blood" to write the 766-page Order of the Phoenix but vehemently denied reports she had delivered the book late after suffering writer's block.

"Just once and for all, for the record, I didn't miss the deadline. Because there was no deadline," Rowling said.

"I just produced a quarter of a million words!" she blasted.

She plans to write seven books in total, taking Potter, a schoolboy wizard, to the end of his time at Hogwarts school.

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix will be launched simultaneously in Britain, the United States and other English-speaking countries on Saturday.

The previous book, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, was the fastest-selling book in history on the first weekend of its publication in Britain in July 2000.

- AFX