Why did you want to write Quidditch Through The Ages and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them?
They are two titles that appear in the novels - Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them is a book that Harry buys to go to Hogwarts so it's one of his school textbooks and Quidditch Through The Ages is a library title. I always write more than I need for the books so bits of them were just written for my own fun. So when Comic Relief asked me to write something I thought I would just love to write them, I just thought it would be so much fun and I was completely correct. It was more fun than I've had writing the others.

How did these books come about?
I got a letter from Richard Curtis who started Comic Relief saying would you consider writing us a short story? And then he cunningly said something like "I'm sure you won't, we'll still love your books, even if you don't but just thought we'd ask". Which is a very clever way of asking someone to do something. But I didn't really need much persuasion as I have always supported Comic Relief, and I think they do fantastic work, so I wrote back and said yes but I'm not good at short stories particularly not short Harry stories I tend to ramble on, so how would it be if I wrote a couple of the titles that appear by title in the novels so that's how it all started. And I decided to do two because just because I had two in my head and I couldn't really decide between Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch so I thought we'll do them both.

You're giving the money raised to Comic Relief in the UK. What will they do with it?
The books are going to be sold all around the world. The money that's raised in the UK will be used partly to fund projects in the UK and partly to fund projects in the poorest parts of Africa. The rest of the money raised internationally will go into an international fund to help children in the poorest countries of the world.

When people buy the book, how much money will be going to charity?
Everyone who would usually take a cut from the book is giving their services for free and they're donating what would've been their proceeds to Comic Relief which means booksellers, paper suppliers, publishers and my royalties, everything will be going to Comic Relief, over 80% of the cover price will be going to Comic Relief.

What do you like most about Comic Relief?
Lots of things I like about Comic Relief. They have a Golden Pound principal which means that every pound that's given to them, or any money that's given to them, will go directly to the causes involved. And it's fun. There is something wonderful about the idea that laughter should be used to combat real tragedy and poverty and suffering and it just is the most wonderful thing.

Can you tell me where and when Quidditch was invented? Quidditch started in the 11th century, at a place called Queerditch Marsh which you probably won't find marked on maps. But obviously that's because wizards have made the place unplottable (which means you can't plot it on a map). Originally it was quite a crude game played on broomsticks, and over the subsequent two centuries they added more balls until it became the game we know now. Why do they have 4 balls? They started off with only 1 ball - the Quaffle, which is the ball you use for goal scoring. Then there was the addition of the Bludgers to make things a bit more interesting and finally you've got the Golden Snitch. The story about the Golden Snitch is so long and convoluted you will have to buy the book to find out. Is Quidditch just as popular as it is in England all around the world? It's popular nearly everywhere, but not so much in the Far East as they prefer the flying carpet to the broomstick, so it's a real minority sport over there. But in most other places it's fairly popular. The US - they have their own magical game but, again, you have to buy the books to find out about it!

Can New Zealanders play Quidditch? They can play Quidditch and they have a couple of excellent world class teams, to which you have to buy the books to find out. Have they ever won the Quidditch World Cup? No they have never won the Quidditch World cup. The Quidditch World Cup has tended to be dominated by the European teams; this is because the Quidditch World Cup started in Europe, so they've had a lot more practice. But I expect the New Zealanders to break through in the near future. Can Australians play Quidditch? They can play Quidditch; they're a good strong Quidditch nation, Australia. They have several very, very good teams. I'm not going to say what they are because you have to buy the book! Have they ever won the Quidditch World Cup? No, but they've come close. They're a very good solid Quidditch-playing nation.

Which is the best national team? At the moment, Bulgaria are pretty good. Ireland are very good and Peru, surprisingly, are also very good. How many beasts are there in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them? There are 75 but that's not including the 10 different species of dragon. So that would be 84 if you counted them. Are they all dangerous? No. They range from very dull, like Flobberworms, which just sit there and don't do anything particularly interesting right up to Quintapeds, which are very, very vicious creatures.

Are there any great New Zealand beasts? There's a dragon that's native to New Zealand, The Antipodean Opaleye. Particularly beautiful dragon but extremely vicious. It originated in New Zealand then it required a great deal of territory, so a couple went and bred in Australia, but they started in New Zealand. Are there any great Australian beasts? My favourite Australian beast is the Billywig which is a kind of insect and if it stings you, you will hover a couple of inches off the ground for a while and young Australian witches and wizards deliberately caught Billywigs for that reason. But if you get a severe reaction you could end up with permanent floating so you don't want to do that too often!

Hagrid is always trying to keep beasts that are dangerous. Are there any that are safe? Yes there are quite a few that are safe but Hagrid would just consider them very dull. For him the whole thing is overcoming something that could kill him. Puffskeins are a popular wizarding pet. They're these big fluffy yellow balls of fur which don't really do much until they get hungry and then this long tentacle comes out and goes snaking through the house looking for food. One of its favourite foods is bogies. It likes to put its tentacle up people's noses and suck out their bogies, which makes it very popular with wizard children. Has Harry's success shocked you - or did you always suspect he would catch on like this? It's really shocked me. No I didn't suspect this. I thought I would be lucky to get published. I knew that I'd written quite a long book for people of 8+. That's why publishers kept turning me down, they kept telling me the first book was too long. Little did they know what was coming in Book 4, obviously! I just didn't think it would be very commercial. I really liked it, obviously and I had enough faith to keep trying to get published but to say this is a bit of a surprise is a bit of an understatement. Why do you think New Zealanders are so crazy about Harry Potter? I don't know, they're mad people, I don't know. I've had some fantastic fan mail from New Zealand, really really wonderful fan mail. The nice thing from my point of view is, that they tend to like the same kind of things in the books, they seem to appreciate the sort of humour and are very attached to the same kind of characters, Hagrid and Ron. People are most worried that I'm going to kill them. New Zealand is no exception, that's what most people write to me 'Don't Kill Hagrid'. Why do you think people in Australia are so Harry Potter-mad? I don't know. I never know what to say when I'm asked that question because I find it very difficult to look at my books from any perspective other than writer. I've had some fantastic letters from Australia and my daughter's really keen to go so some time in the not too distant future I shall probably pop up there. What parts of the success of Harry Potter have you most enjoyed? The first time I ever had to do a reading which was to about 4 people, in fact so few people turned up at this bookshop that the staff felt really sorry for me and came and stood around and listened as well. I was shaking so badly I kept missing my line. I was terrified. But since then, I have found readings to be the most fantastic experience. I think partly because I was writing the books in secret for so long. For five years I was the only person who read a word of it, knew all these things about Harry's world and his friends and so the experience of sitting in front of all these hundreds of people and hearing them laugh, answering their questions and they all know my characters- the novelty still hasn't worn off and I absolutely love it so I would say giving readings. The writing is my favourite part that's the part I love above all else but part of being famous I you go out and you meet your readers and that is incredibly satisfying. What parts have you least enjoyed? Journalists banging on my front door! Don't like that at all. Can you tell me anything about Harry Potter no 5? Well it will be a papery object with pages inside. Harry will appear in it. The title is "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and I think that's as far as I'm prepared to go at the moment. Has Harry ever used the Internet? No. He's not allowed near Dudley's computer and Dudley's the only one who's got a computer. He gets beaten up if he goes too near the keyboard. So no, he's never used the Internet. I use it a lot but not Harry. Wizards don't really need to use the Internet but that's something that you'll find out later on in the series. They have a means of finding out what goes on in the outside world that I think is more fun than the Internet. Could anything be more fun than the Internet? Yes!