An Aussie interview has lead to some secrets even the most diehard Potterhead wouldn’t know, being let out into the open. And all without the use of the Unforgivable Curses, may we add.
Co-founder of Bloomsbury, Nigel Newton, spoke to ABC Radio earlier this week. He’s the man we have to thank for finally saying ‘yes’ to JK Rowling, and printing the first ever copy of a Harry Potter book.
He spoke to Richard Fidler about his successes and what the HP era was like for him, and tbh, it sounds kind of absolutely bloody terrifying.
Read some of the highlights of the interview below:
“It was completely mad and we were at the eye of the storm. I remember Jo Rowling phoning me once after she’d delivered a new book, saying ‘please Nigel will you release the name of the title, because I have people outside searching my trash can looking for bits of paper’.
At about that time we had to go into a complete security lockdown because people were trying to steal the manuscript.”Apparently, a journo for The Sun was sent to a printing factory with £5000 ($9300) in a case, to offer to any worker who would “go in and nick a copy”.“The enemies – that is to say when people were trying to bust the plot – stood to ruin a great deal of pleasure for the world.I remember the British spy eavesdropping station GCHQ rang me up and said ‘we’ve detected an early copy of this book on the internet’. I got them to read a page to our editor and she said, ‘Nah, that’s a fake’. They’re good guys.”
But you can listen to the full broadcast here: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2016/04/06/4437991.htm
GCHP refused to comment on their inclusion in the story of Harry Potter’s success, with a spokesmen saying only this:
“We do not comment on our defence against the dark arts.”
Man, Harry Potter fans were crazy back then, weren’t we? Spies, theft, trespassing; all to find out what happened next.
