Truly it’s beyond wizard. I can exclusively reveal that a play based on J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter tales will open in the West End within two years.

Rowling will not write the stage piece — however, she will co-produce and collaborate with a playwright.

But the play, to be steered by prominent London and New York producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender, will mine (according to a statement sent to me, as a mudblood, by Owl Post yesterday) ‘the previously untold story of Harry Potter’s early years as an orphan and outcast’.

Although the statement didn’t spell it out, I understand that Warner Bros, the studio behind the Potter pictures, will be involved in the development of the theatre show, just as it was with the Sam Mendes musical version of Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, which is running at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Harry Potter’s theatrical adaptation will seek to ‘offer a unique insight into the heart and mind of the now legendary young wizard. A seemingly ordinary boy, but one for whom destiny has plans...’

Rowling noted the numerous approaches she has received about putting Harry Potter on the stage, but the vision put forth by Sonia and Colin ‘was the only one that really made sense to me, and which had the sensitivity, intensity and intimacy I thought appropriate for bringing Harry’s story to the stage.

After a year in gestation, it is very exciting to see this project moving onto the next phrase.’