Stress hindered Harry Potter work, says Rowling

Harry Potter author JK Rowling spoke today of her relief at winning a court battle against a rival children’s writer who accused Rowling of stealing her ideas.

Rowling said the stress of the court case had hindered her work on the fifth instalment in the Potter saga.

On Wednesday, a judge in the US threw out the claims of Nancy Stouffer, who said she had first invented the term “muggles” – the name for humans who have no magical powers in the Potter books.

Rowling told CBBC’s Newsround: “I’m so relieved. This court case has dragged on for a few years – I’m a really happy woman today.”

Fans had hoped that the fifth book – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - would be in the shops this summer but there is still no publication date, and there have been rumours that Rowling is suffering from writer’s block.

Asked if the case had affected her progress, she said: “It has affected it, obviously. Anyone who’s been involved in a court case will know that it’s time consuming, it plays on your mind.

“There have been times when I’ve been writing and that’s been uppermost in my mind, whereas what should have been uppermost in my mind is what’s going on with Harry and co.

“This is a large weight which has been lifted off me. I feel very different today – it’s great.”

Rowling said “a lot” of the fifth book was written but couldn’t say when it would be ready for publication.

“There’s a lot of book done. That’s all I want to say, because if I give it a date and then I pass it everyone will be upset.

“I will say that I have a beginning, a middle and an end – you could read it all the way through and I know a lot of Harry Potter fans will say just to give it to us.

“But I’m a perfectionist and I want a bit more of a tweak,” she said.

“I really am getting there and I have to laugh when I read the bits about writer’s block because I don’t think I’ve ever been left blocked in my life.”

She said the book would be as long as the fourth, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and would have at least one new character.

The conclusion of the US court case ended a three year legal battle.

Stouffer had alleged the word muggles was stolen from her mid-Eighties book The Legend of Rah and the Muggles.

She also claimed to have written a colouring book entitled Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly.

But a New York district court ruled she had lied and doctored evidence to support her claims. She was fined £30,000 (€47,400) and ordered her to pay a portion of the defendants’ costs.