Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

J.K. ROWLING is the author of the enduringly popular Harry Potter books. After the idea for Harry Potter came to her on a delayed train journey in 1990, she plotted out and started writing the series of seven books and the first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published in the UK in 1997. The series took another ten years to complete, concluding in 2007 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The Harry Potter books have now sold over 600 million copies in 85 languages, been listened to as audiobooks for over one billion hours and made into eight smash hit movies. To accompany the series, J.K. Rowling wrote three short companion volumes for charity: Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in aid of her international children’s foundation Lumos. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them went on to inspire a new series of films featuring Magizoologist Newt Scamander. Harry’s story as a grown-up was continued in a stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which J.K. Rowling wrote with playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany, and which is now playing in locations around the world. She is also the author of a bestselling crime fiction series written under the pen name Robert Galbraith, and two stand-alone children’s novels, The Ickabog and The Christmas Pig. J.K. Rowling has received many awards and honours for her writing, including the OBE and Companion of Honour, and a Blue Peter Gold Badge. She supports a wide number of humanitarian causes through her charitable trust Volant and is the founder of the international children’s care reform charity Lumos. To find out more about J.K. Rowling visit jkrowling.com.LEVI PINFOLD is a multi-award-winning artist, writer and illustrator. Levi combines keen observation and astonishing technical ability to evoke characters and worlds that reach into the hearts and imaginations of his readers. His work can be seen in some of the finest children’s books in print today, including his Kate Greenaway Medal-winning picture book Black Dog. Levi lives in Queensland, Australia, with his wife and two young children. ‘Being given the keys to Hogwarts and asked to explore feels exactly how it sounds … magical. Visually speaking, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is like watching a firework display on the coldest, darkest of nights. That sense of wonder and awe is something I’d love to share with readers, my younger self and my own kids.’