8/7/2008

in

A short story anthology featuring an 800-word prequel to the Harry Potter series has become the fastest-selling short story collection of all time in the UK.

Justin Zaremba

A recently published book featuring an untitled prequel to the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling has become the fastest-selling short story anthology of all time in the UK, the BBC reports.  
  
  
  
*What's Your Story?* contains 13 postcard-sized tales by authors such authors as Nick Hornby, Doris Lessing, and Sebastian Faulks.  
  
  
  
On its first day of release more than 10,000 copies were bought, with some shops sold out by Thursday lunchtime.  
  
The untitled Potter prequel is set three years before the birth of the hero, Harry Potter.  
  
The 800-word story focuses on James Potter, Harry's father, and his friend Sirius Black in their teenage years, tearing around on a magical motorbike.  
  
Rowling's tale concludes with the handwritten words, "From the prequel I am not working on - but that was fun!"  
  
Authors who also contributed to the postcard book include *Trainspotting* author Irvine Welsh, playwright Tom Stoppard and *Handmaiden's Tale* author Margaret Atwood.  
  
  
  
Profits from the sale of the collection will go to Dyslexia Action and English Pen, an organization that promotes literature as a means of greater understanding between cultures.  
  
  
  
The original hand-written Potter prequel was sold for charity in June, raising nearly $50,000.  
  
Despite the Potter series concluding in book form last year with *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, there are still several projects in the pipeline.  
  
  
  
Rowling will publish, *The Tales of Beedle the Bard*, a series of fairy tales which were integral to the final Potter novel, in December.  
  
  
  
The film version of *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince* is due for release in November.