Rowling Confirms Next Harry Potter Title

By: Andrew Osmond
Date: Sunday, October 22, 2000

The title of the next Harry Potter book has been confirmed as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. JK Rowling confirmed the title on the Friday morning Today programme. 'I kept saying I wouldn't tell anyone, but then this cute boy, about 8, asked me, and I knew it would make him so happy,' she said. However, she could not say when the book would be published, except probably not in July as rumoured. 'I really haven't got that far with it yet. I'd like to ensure that I really like the writing and take my time.'

However, there will be two Rowling-written Harry Potter spinoffs appearing on March 16th. Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages are both being written in association with the British charity event Comic Relief. (Past Comic Relief tie-ins include the stop-motion film Robbie the Reindeer and the spoof Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, with Rowan Atkinson as the Time Lord.) Rowling also made recent British headlines by donating £500,000 to the National Council for One Parent Families (NCOPF).