Bloomsbury to relaunch Harry Potter series

Bloomsbury publishing said the relaunch of the Harry Potter series to tie in with the keenly awaited movie of the final book would help drive a stronger second half after interim profits fell 48 per cent.

Pre-tax profits fell to £949,000 from £1.8m a year earlier, although the group said its underlying earnings rose 8 per cent.

Its second half is traditionally stronger and Bloomsbury said a number of releases were in the pipeline, as well as a deal to publish Churchill's papers in electronic form.