Bloomsbury holding out for a hero

HARRY Potter's legion of fans were left disappointed when publisher Bloomsbury all but admitted it had no idea when author JK Rowling would complete her next instalment of the young hero's adventures.

Bloomsbury said only that the publication date of the fifth Harry Potter novel would be announced 'after it has been delivered' - dashing hopes of readers and shareholders that the book would be a must-have in Christmas stockings.

Instead, Bloomsbury is pinning strong hopes on November's release of the second film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, boosting sales of the existing books.

However, Rowling's tardiness did not stop Bloomsbury reporting an 11% rise in half-year pre-tax profits to £2.8m as turnover grew 8% to £24.5m and margins edged higher. The dividend is 1.65p a share, up from 1.5p.

Chairman Nigel Newton said the publisher had benefited from the development of its reference activities, an area it believed would grow strongly over the next few years.

Bloomsbury has made four acquisitions in the past year, including Whitaker's Almanack, the reference book first published in 1868, for which it paid The Stationery Office £750,000.

The publication is part of its A&C Black stable, which includes Who's Who and Black's Medical Dictionary. 'It offers A&C Black many opportunities to exploit the content, using the skills of both A&C Black and Bloomsbury Reference and electronic media teams,' it said. 'We are already hard at work re-positioning the Almanack with an extensive marketing campaign and the response from the book trade has been positive.'

Bloomsbury recently secured the rights to the biography of Inspector Morse star the late John Thaw, to be written by his actress wife Sheila Hancock.

The book is due to be published in 2004 and analysts believe sales could exceed the record set by the biography of Billy Connolly, which was written by the comedian's wife Pamela Stephenson. 'This book is destined to be an enormous best seller,î Bloomsbury said.

It also said Sorceress, the sequel to Witch Child, had generated strong sales in Britain and abroad and a film of Louis Sachar's best-selling Holes is expected to boost book sales when it is released later this year.

Bloomsbury is also expecting strong sales of Business - The Ultimate Resource, a reference book with contributions from the likes of Edward de Bono and Charles Handy.