A book tour by J.K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter children's stories, has turned into a royal visit as queen
of fantasy fiction is mobbed everywhere by screaming crowds of wizards and witches.
Desperate parents seeking private audiences have resorted to attempted bribery. Calls for the books to be banned from
schools because they feature witchcraft and "sheer evil" appear to have entranced even more American children.
Eight million coppies of the three Harry Potter novels have been published in the US and most of the readers seem determined
to meet the author.
More than 1,000 people had to be turned away from a book signing in New Jersey while in Washington 1,000 children filed
past the author with dog-eared coppies of her books. With the line sneaking round the block at the Politics and Prose
bookshop in the capital, it became clear that classrooms were severely deprived of pupils. Mothers joked it was a busy day
for dentist appointments.
"It's sort of like in the Twenties being able to say you met A.A.Milne," said one mother. An employee said some parents
were demanding "an exclsive audience with her holiness" and offering cash.
