Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince AUDIOBOOK - OUT TODAY!!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Read by Stephen Fry
Published by Bloomsbury and HNP as an unabridged audiobook
Monday 22nd August 2005

Just in time for the long journeys on the bank holiday and the last treat of the summer holiday, Bloomsbury and HNP are releasing their hugely popular 6th installment of the Harry Potter series as an audiobook. The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince audiobook is read by Stephen Fry and is released on Monday 22nd August.

Audiobooks have seen a huge increase in popularity following the introduction of the ipod and other MP3 players. In the words of iTunes ‘the iPod lets you read a page-turner without turning a page’.

In the previous book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the last chapter, titled 'The Second War Begins,' started:

'In a brief statement on Friday night, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He Who Must Not Be Named has returned to this country and is once more active.

'It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord — well, you know who I mean — is alive and among us again,' said Fudge.'

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at this point as Voldemort's power and followers are increasing day by day, in the midst of this battle of good and evil.

Interesting Harry Potter Facts and Figures!

• If all Harry Potter books ever sold were placed end to end, they would go around the equator 1.4 times.
• If all the Harry Potter books ever sold were laid flat, they would cover the area of about 1000 football pitches. Or they could be used to carpet Monaco 3.7 times.
• On its first day of sale in the UK, Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix sold at a rate of 21 books per second. If all those books sold in the UK in the first day were stacked up the pile would be 12 times higher than Mount Everest.
• If one person were to read every Harry Potter book ever sold - at a rate of one per day - it would take them over 700,000 years to do so.
• The total number of Harry Potter books ever sold is more than the populations of Britain, France, Germany and Italy combined.

Note: all dimensions are based on the Bloomsbury editions and sales figures are based on worldwide sales of the series except where stated.