Potter embargo 'could be broken'
The final Harry Potter novel could hit shelves before its official release next week.
Some shops are not expected to keep a written agreement which prevents them selling the book before 21 July.
"It's quite possible one will break the embargo," says Katherine Rushton from The Bookseller magazine. "They'd do it to be first, and for all the PR."
The book's publishers, Bloomsbury, said it had "no reason to believe anyone would want to ruin the excitement".
"If such a thing were to happen, we believe that the public would make their feelings known by not buying it from such a spoilsport retailer."
However, it added, "it is our intention to vigorously enforce the embargo if required".
The secret police are out there ready to jump on anyone who breaks the embargo with a terrific sledgehammer
Robert Webb, book seller
Author JK Rowling has also stressed the importance of keeping to the official publication date on her website.
"I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry, to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are they going," she wrote.
Embargos on previous instalments of the series have generally been observed because Bloomsbury threatened to withhold future Harry Potter books from stores who flouted the rules.
This time there is no such incentive.
"Because it's the final Harry Potter, Bloomsbury doesn't have that same power," says Rushton. "It has played its last ace card."
Midnight openings
JK Rowling has amassed a £540m fortune from writing
Bookshops around the UK, many of which are opening at midnight to sell Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, have mixed opinions on whether the embargo will hold.
"I'd be very surprised if anyone sold it early," said Tim Curtis of The Little Apple Bookshop in York. "I'm not sure consumers would want it."
"People like to be part of the midnight thing," agrees Suzanne Jones of Heffers in Cambridge.
"I've got an 11-year-old who has got it in her diary and she wants to go out and be part of it."
"To buy it in the cold light of day on a Friday is just not the same."
But Robert Webb, who has run Kingsthorpe Book Shop in Northampton for the last 34 years, says it is "a miracle" the embargo has held in the past.
"It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it did get broken this time.
Hundreds of fans queued overnight to get hold of the last book
"But I think the secret police are out there ready to jump on anyone who breaks the embargo with a terrific sledgehammer."
'Spoilsports'
Harry Potter mania has led to the book becoming available in locations where you would never expect to find works of literature - such as garages and hardware stores.
It is thought that these shops - which have less to lose by souring relations with Bloomsbury - are the most likely to reveal the boy wizard's fate ahead of time.
"I don't think you'll get traditional bookshops doing that," says Rushton. "Inside the industry and outside the industry they'd be seen as spoilsports."
But the security operation surrounding the publication of the novel is so tight that anyone who does break the embargo is only likely to get a few hours head-start on their competitors.
They may also find themselves at the centre of legal action.
Everyone who stocks the book has had to sign an indemnity form, which makes them liable for damages and "other equitable relief" if they do not keep their side of the bargain.
No photos
The release date for the book was announced on JK Rowling's website
As well as setting the embargo, the document imposes stringent conditions on retailers to ensure the plot of the book is not leaked.
Retailers have to keep boxes containing the novel "in a secure area under lock and key", and they definitely must not be "visible to the public for any reason".
It is not even permitted to take a photograph of the books being delivered.
One shop-owner who will not be complying with the regulations is Mr Webb in Northampton - because he has decided not to order any copies of the last ever Harry Potter.
"There's a branch of Asda 100 yards away from our shop," he explains. "We're advising our loyal customers to take advantage of their generosity.
"They'll save three quid - which they can come and spend on something else here!"
JKR: Some people will 'absolutely loathe' Book 7
ITV is set to broadcast a documentary on JK Rowling this winter called "A Year in the Life...JK Rowling," and some excerpts from the special have been released.
IT IS the clearest sign yet that the last in the Harry Potter series of novels will not end happily. The author JK Rowling is seen in a forthcoming TV documentary looking over the just-finished version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on her laptop. She declares: "Yeah, think I've finished."
As an off-camera film-maker offers his congratulations, Rowling, 41, says: "Thank you...yeah, you don't know, it might be rubbish. Some people will loathe it, they will absolutely loathe it. For some people to love it, other people must loathe it. That's just in the nature of the plot."
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She adds, "I'm actually really, really happy with it", before bowing her head on the keyboard to exclaim: "Oh my God!"
The remarkable footage is from ITV's documentary A Year in the Life...JK Rowling which it says has been made with "unprecedented" behind-the-scenes access.
Excerpts released at STV's scheduled launch in Glasgow yesterday might add fuel to the conspiracy theory gripping Potter fans across the globe - that the boy wizard Harry dies at the end of the seventh and final novel. The rumour mill has gone into frenzied overdrive in the run-up to the worldwide release of the last Potter novel on 21 July.
Rowling has remained enigmatic about the fate of the character who first appeared ten years ago in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. However, she has also done little to dampen speculation that dark clouds are gathering over her bespectacled hero. In a recent interview, the Edinburgh writer - who was filmed finishing the last book in room 652 of the city's Balmoral Hotel - confessed she "sobbed her heart out" and downed a half bottle of champagne in one after penning the final words.
If tragedy is looming, it may well be the climax of the eternal fight between good and evil. In the documentary, Rowling describes her works as "profoundly moral", adding: "I think it is a lie to pretend that even children of 11 don't have to make moral decisions. I think it's an outrageous black lie."
The last novel in the Potter series is virtually guaranteed to become the fastest selling book in history. The publisher, Bloomsbury, is thought to have delayed final printing until the last moment possible to minimise the chances of it leaking, and the documentary follows the completed manuscript's delivery in a locked suitcase to Rowling's agent at Heathrow Airport.
It also emerges that Castle Duart on Mull is one of the real-life locations that inspired parts of the Potter saga.
Potter fans across the country yesterday had the chance to catch preview screenings of the latest film in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Glasgow's Cineol cinema showed it no fewer than 22 times and nearly all showings were either sold out or had only "limited availability".
Many critics have praised the film as the strongest of the series, and on the whole those watching in Glasgow agreed.
Rona Scott, 19, from Airdrie, said: "As we were sitting watching it, I thought 'this has to be the best one yet'. It remained pretty true to the basic plot of the books."
Martin McLeay, from Glasgow, said: "It's a lot darker than the others. There are very few laughs in it and you could see the characters were getting older. But we all enjoyed it."
IS THIS THE OPENING OF THE FINAL NOVEL?
A PRINTED manuscript in the documentary trailer shows what appears to be the opening sentence of the last novel.
When it was written is unclear; a note written in pen on the manuscript refers to a version saved on computer dated 23 October, 2006.
However, JK Rowling reportedly worked on the final draft up until January this year. Some scenes in the book are thought to have been planned by Rowling more than a decade ago.
MAGIC AT THE BOX OFFICE
HARRY Potter and the Order of the Phoenix netted magical box-office takings of just over £36 million on its first night of release.
In the United States alone, eager fans bought £22 million worth of tickets as thousands flocked to special midnight screenings yesterday.
The figures smashed the previous record for a Wednesday night opening in the US, which was held by Spider-Man 2, released in 2004.
The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book was published on 21 June, 2003, and that day it sold almost seven million copies in Britain and the US.
The first four Potter films, starting with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone have generated £1.7 billion in worldwide ticket sales for Warner Bros.
JK's reading streamed online; post-DH webchat
JK Rowling will be reading from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at London's Natural History Museum on July 21st, and Bloomsbury has announced that this will be streamed live at their website.
Furthermore, Jo is set to participate in a live web chat from 2-3:00 PM BST on July 30th. Questions may be submitted one week in advance or live on 30th July at Bloomsbury.com.
