Will she or won't she? Author JK Rowling appears to have ruled out writing another Harry Potter novel just weeks after sparking feverish speculation that another book could be on the way in an interview with US television chat show host Oprah Winfrey.
Rowling had tantalised her fans by refusing to rule out the possibility of a further Potter adventure, assuring Winfrey she could "definitely write an eighth, ninth [and] 10th book". The author said: "I think I am done but you never know," adding: "I love writing them."
But now Daniel Radcliffe, who stars as the schoolboy wizard in the Harry Potter films, has put a dampener on the hopes of readers. In an interview to promote the launch of the latest Potter film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Radcliffe told MTV news that he'd received a text from Rowling promising him that she would write no more Potter stories, after he expressed dismay at the idea of yet more Potter films in an earlier interview.
Radcliffe said the text "basically amounted to the fact that she felt I'd been very good in this Harry Potter film and as a reward for that she wasn't going to make any more Harry Potter films". He told the TV station's reporter: "I'm sure she will be writing other books, but I can pretty much guarantee Harry will not be a feature."
Rowling has been tight-lipped on her writing plans since completing the seventh Harry Potter novel, which was published in 2007, 10 years after the first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, appeared. Rumours that same year that she was at work on an adult crime novel were later dismissed as a red herring.
