Harry Potter prequel fetches more than $52,000 at auction

Melbourne, June 11 : An 800-word handwritten prequel to the Harry Potter series by author JK Rowling has fetched a whopping 52,023.72 dollars in a charity auction in London.

The prequel, written on a card, has been acquired by an absent bidder, who dished out more than 30 pounds for every word written by Rowling in the short story.

Rowling wrote the short story at a charity auction at the flagship of Waterstone's bookstore chain in London and the funds raised form the charity would benefit the writers' association English PEN and a dyslexia charity.

Another short mystery story written by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard, on a similar card, raised 4,000 pounds.

Rowling managed to write her Harry Potter prequel onto both sides of a piece of A5 paper, slightly bigger than a postcard.

However, this prequel to the seven-book series, which will soon be available online, does not give any hint of a new Potter novel.

Rowling finished her card by writing, "From the prequel I am not working on - but that was fun!" reports The Daily Telegraph.

There were 12 other authors and illustrators, including Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, and fellow British novelists Nick Hornby and Margaret Atwood, who also contributed cards to the auction.

The last book in the Harry Potter series-'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', hit the stores last year.

ANI