J.K. Rowling did a reading of her new book,
The Casual Vacancy, at the Independent Bath Literature Festival in the UK on Friday evening, to a crowd of 1600 fans, and answered a few questions about her book for grown-ups, and of course
Harry Potter. Rowling admitted that she would never write a prequel to the Harry Potter series, when specifically asked if she would tell a full detailed story of the Marauders. That, and a few other highlights, can be read below, via
The Independent.
Fan photos from the book signing after the discussion, from Twitter users
HogwartsChamp,
I_Am_Smauglock, and
NymphadoraLupin can be seen below. If anyone else attended Jo's Bath Literature Festival panel, please
feel free to send photos and notes in!
UPDATE: Video highlights from the chat can be seen here.
Quote:
Rowling... said she was not planning to return to the story of the "Marauders" because she didn't think much of prequels. "I'm never going to say never but I have no current plans. I think prequels are not generally very successful," she said.
"From about 2000, I knew there would never be any topping Harry Potter. My publishers had got this train for the book launch which consisted of me leaving Kings Cross. I looked out at all the people screaming. It was like Beatlemania. I remember thinking 'you will never top this'. [Now], I can say 'oh, I will never top it' or I can see how lucky I am… I truly feel completely free."
On the adult themes in
The Casual Vacancy:
Quote:
"I have never ever sat down and thought... 'now is the moment to write a book with a ***** or with swearing in it'. This was a book I was burning to write… I draw on my own adolescence... and on my experience of adolescents as a teacher... I see adolescence as very fragile. When I watch my two young children, who are eight and 10, they will watch shows on Nickelodeon where teenagers are wholly false."
On her next book, a children's story:
Quote:
"It will be shorter. I'm very bad at estimating what sort of age group will like this... I think it might be for slightly younger children."
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J.K. Rowling attends Bath Literature Festival, says she won't write Marauder prequel 
