Colour Me Harry

I love this time of year - no, it's not for the summer sales (although, they are lovely, when you have some cash that is!), and it's not for the weather (obviously, otherwise I would never have moved to London), it's because it's Harry Potter time again! The glorious few weeks that lead up to J.K. Rowling's next installment of wizards and witches and Acid Pops and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans are always revealing times. And as we await the seventh and final book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), these weeks have been even more telling...

Harry Potter fans are everywhere, and most of them wear suits! Riding the tube to work you won't find a carriage without at least one person greedily devouring the pages of past books in their desperate attempt to catch up where J.K last left off. For those of you who aren't clued in (for shame!) - Harry has just suffered the loss of yet another trusted advisor and mentor (okay, I won't spoil the plot for you by telling who it is) and he's preparing for his final year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You who are film buffs only, well, you're a book behind my friends - but with Daniel Radcliffe (the lucky boy who scored the role of Harry after a producer spotted his matted hair from the seat behind, as he sat with his parents in a music theatre) having just signed a US$50 million deal to confirm his place in the final two Potter films, rest assured you'll find out what happens to everyone's favourite wizard, soon enough.

The secret ending has been guarded more fiercely than any Crown Jewels, but the first 12 million copies to be printed are finally going on sale this Saturday, at one minute passed midnight. And book stores are trying to make the most out of J.K. Rowling's last Potter. In America, Border's is hosting a free "Grand Hallows Ball" at stores nationwide beginning this Friday evening at 9.30pm with activities including a Great Snape Debate, and the crowning of a king and queen of the Ball. Are we thinking perhaps, just for a moment, that parents are indulging the fantasies of their children a wee bit much? Maybe. I, however, am severely disappointed that I have just left New York - can you imagine the size of the party at Border's Madison Square Garden? Oh, I'd dress up as Hermione for that one!