New Harry Potter books for Comic Relief

Author JK Rowling is to help charities cash in on her hugely successful Harry Potter children's books.

Author JK Rowling is to help charities cash in on her hugely successful Harry Potter children's books.

She has teamed up with Comic Relief to write two spin-off books from the Potter series to raise money for charity.

The books about teenage wizard Harry and his adventures will be published in time for Red Nose Day on March 16.

She agreed to write them after being contacted by Richard Curtis, the man behind Blackadder and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

The book titles - Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages - have already featured in Rowling's four previously published tales.

She said: "I have always had a secret hankering to write these two books, so when Richard Curtis wrote to me, I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to be involved with a charity I have always supported."

Curtis is closely involved with Comic Relief.

Potter has become a worldwide phenomenon and publication of the latest book, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, set publishing records when it appeared in the summer. His first film hits cinemas next year.

Printers, typesetters, paper merchants and retailers will all be asked to join the publishers - Scholastic in the US and Bloomsbury in the UK and rest of the world - in donating their services for free.

Comic Relief raises money to tackle poverty and promoted social justice in some of the poorest countries in the world.