What happened when Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was published?
It went almost straight to number one in the bestseller lists, which I thought was incredible. You have to remember that these things were taking me hugely by surprise. The fact is that it all happened very quickly but what mattered was that I had written a book I was proud of. And Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban? The idea that children would queue up in bookshops to buy copies of my books delighted me. But there are other more disconcerting sides to that level of publicity – having your photograph appear regularly in the papers is not something I ever anticipated. But all the time, children are reading the books. And we know now that adults are reading the books, too. And they like them. That’s what I remember when I’m feeling besieged. Your books have now been translated into at least 50 languages. What do you think of the different versions? I’ve recently received copies of the first Harry translated into Japanese – it’s beautiful. But I think the one I’m most impressed wit
