Rowling copyright date is also shown as 2012. The reverse of the title page shows the legend First Published in Great Britain in 2012 by Little, Brown & with no number line. The back of the dust jacket shows an impression of Pagford, as the idyllic village, in black ink against the red of the cover. The fine yellow and red dust jacket with the price in sterling, is not price clipped, has no blemishes and has a photo of the author on the back cover, with a ballot box black X on the cover between the titles in white and repeated on the spine with the X in red and the titles in black.

The tight, bright book has no marks, bumps or writings over its 503 pages. The fine (as new, unread and pristine condition) book has black cloth covers with gold titles on the spine, with all the edges in white and crimson red end papers. The book is set in Pagford, an English village idyll, but all is not as it seems and what lies behind its pretty facade is a town at war, at many levels. Rowling's first novel for adults, under her own name, published by Little, Brown Book Group, London in 2012. A fine first edition, first printing, first impression of J.K. Down from the attic came the very dusty box of typed and handwritten papers and I set to work. That's when I had the idea of putting the story online for free and asking children to illustrate it. There it stayed for over a decade, and there it would probably be still if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't happened and millions of children hadn't been stuck at home, unable to attend school or meet their friends. After I finished the Harry Potter books, I took a five-year break, and when I decided not to publish a children's book next, The Ickabog went up into the attic, still unfinished. Well, I won't say how, in case you're coming to it for the first time! I read the story aloud to my two youngest children when they were very small, but I never finished it, much to the frustration of Mackenzie, whose favorite story it was. The story never underwent any serious modifications. What do the monsters we conjure tell us about ourselves? What must happen for evil to get a grip on a person, or on a country, and what does it take to defeat it? Why do people choose to believe lies even on scant or nonexistent evidence? The Ickabog was written in fits and starts between Harry Potter books. The word 'Ickabog' derives from 'Ichabod,' meaning 'no glory' or 'the glory has departed.' I think you'll understand why I chose the name once you've read the story, which deals with themes that have always interested me. The idea for The Ickabog came to me a long time ago.

Harry potter complete book series