Harry Potter manuscript sparks flight saga

Harry Potter author JK Rowling told today how she was almost stranded in New York – after refusing to part with the manuscript for the final book on a flight home.

The writer said she would have considered sailing all the way back to the UK if airport security staff hadn’t relented and allowed her to carry the item onto the flight.

Passengers flying from the States are still subject to strict baggage restrictions following the uncovering of an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic flights between the country and Britain.

But Rowling wasn’t prepared to stow her top secret notes for book number seven - the last in the hugely popular series – in her check-in baggage.

The author was returning from the Big Apple where she took part in a charity book reading with fellow scribes Stephen King and John Irving.

She wrote to fans on her website: “The heightened security restrictions on the airlines made the journey back from New York interesting, as I refused to be parted from the manuscript of book seven.

“A large part of it is handwritten and there was no copy of anything I had done while in the US.”

She went on: “They let me take it on thankfully, bound up in elastic bands.

“I don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t – sailed home probably.”

Rowling also revealed she has yet to choose a name for the long-awaited conclusion to the boy wizard’s adventures.

“I was quite happy with one of them until the other one struck me while I was taking a shower in New York,” she wrote.