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Bloomsbury launches Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with JK Rowling reading from her new book at Edinburgh Castle on the stroke of midnight.

Before midnight on Friday evening, JK Rowling will arrive at the Esplanade outside Edinburgh Castle to be greeted by 2,000 Edinburgh schoolchildren and their families. Street performers, torch bearers, jugglers and entertainers will complete the carnival atmosphere outside the dramatic backdrop of Edinburgh Castle’s medieval façade. Onto the castle, will be projected a giant image of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book jacket. ITV’s presenter, Stephen Mulhern will be hosting a live 30 minute programme entitled “HARRY POTTER AT THE CASTLE: MAGIC AT MIDNIGHT” (11.45pm-12.10am, Friday 15th July) which will be broadcast live onto a screen (9 metres wide x 7 metres high) on the Esplanade.

Immediately after midnight, at 00.01am on Saturday 16th July J K Rowling will read from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle. Her audience will be seventy children who will have travelled to the Edinburgh Castle Esplanade by horse-drawn carriages and have exclusive access inside Edinburgh Castle. These aspiring cub reporters (aged 8-16) have won media competitions to attend the Harry Potter Children’s Press Conference Weekend on behalf of selected English-language newspapers and broadcasters from around the world. The cub reporters will meet JK Rowling who will give them each a signed copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. They will then have the weekend to read the book before attending the Children’s Press Conference on Sunday 17th July to question J K Rowling in person. ITV’s ultimate Harry Potter fan, Owen Jones, 14 (from Cardiff) will also have the exclusive UK interview with JK Rowling which will be broadcast on a 30-minute ITV programme entitled: “HARRY POTTER AT THE CASTLE: THE J K ROWLING INTERVIEW” at 5.30pm, Sunday 17th July.

For more details visit the Bloomsbloomsbury web site.

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