J.K. Rowling has released her first children’s book since her iconic Harry Potter series.
The legendary writer took to her Twitter page to reveal that she would be releasing a fairy tale story online in instalments.
The author, whose full name is Joanne Rowling, revealed that she wrote the fairy tale, The Ickabog, over 10 years ago but ended up not publishing it.
‘The idea for The Ickabog came to me while I was still writing Harry Potter,’ Joanne wrote on her website. ‘I wrote most of a first draft in fits and starts between Potter books, intending to publish it after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
‘However, after the last Potter book I wanted to take a break from publishing, which ended up lasting five years,’ she explained, revealing that she used the time to write adult novels The Casual Vacancy and The Cuckoo’s Calling, the latter of which she released under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, before stepping away from children’s books ‘for a while’.
‘At that point, the first draft of The Ickabog went up into the attic, where it’s remained for nearly a decade,’ Joanne admitted. ‘Over time I came to think of it as a story that belonged to my two younger children, because I’d read it to them in the evenings when they were little, which has always been a happy family memory.'
Revealing that her ‘now teenagers were touchingly enthusiastic’ at the idea of releasing the personal fairy tale, Joanne went on to explain what the book touches on and why she chose now to share it with the world.
‘The Ickabog is a story about truth and the abuse of power,’ she wrote. ‘To forestall one obvious question: the idea came to me well over a decade ago, so it isn’t intended to be read as a response to anything that’s happening in the world right now.
‘The themes are timeless and could apply to any era or any country’.
MORE: JK Rowling launches Harry Potter at Home to entertain fans during lockdown
New chapters of The Ickabog will be published every week day up until 10th July on The Ickabog website.
It’s the perfect way to keep any kids off school entertained while under lockdown. Though we think we might quite enjoy having a read too…
