• RELATED STORIES

• Kobo to air TV ad

  Kobo is to air its first UK...

• Harlequin to appear on The Intern

  Mills & Boon and MIRA p...

• Sotheby's sale for English PEN

  Sotheby's will auction ...

• Slump in audience figures for Review Show

  BBC arts programme "Th...

• Mamut again top trade figure on ST Rich List

  Waterstones owner Alexander...

Rowling gives up creativity for court

15.04.08 | Anna Richardson

J K Rowling said today that her efforts to halt a publisher's Harry Potter encyclopedia have been crushing her creativity, reports the Guardian.

Rowling said she has stopped work on a new novel because the lawsuit in federal court has "decimated my creative work over the last month". The newspaper reports on Rowling's appearance in court in the US yesterday (14th April) in the case against RDR Books to stop publication of Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon. She says her copyrights are being violated.

"This book constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work," she testified. RDR's lawyer, Anthony Falzone, defended the lexicon as a reference guide. Falzone calls it a legal effort "to organise and discuss the complicated and very elaborate world of Harry Potter".

When Dale Cendali, Rowling's lawyer, asked how she felt about Harry, she replied: "I really don't want to cry." Rowling brought the lawsuit against Vander Ark's publisher last year.

According to the Guardian, the legal showdown could last most of the week. Rowling will spend her breaks in the seclusion of a jury room — away from any Potter fans.

• Anna Richardson
• harry potter
• J K Rowling
• Media