Harry Potter fans can look forward to a Halloween treat, with some tricks, from J.K. Rowling.
In an announcement posted Friday on her website, www.pottermore.com , the author revealed that she has prepared a 1,700-word story about the witch and former Hogwarts professor Dolores Umbridge. The story will appear on Halloween on her site. It will include Rowling’s “revealing first-person thoughts” about Umbridge, according to Friday’s announcement.
Umbridge first appeared in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth of seven books in Rowling’s multimillion-selling series. Imelda Staunton played her in the film adaptations of the Potter books.
Associated Press
Review: Brief bio captures Charlie Chaplin’s essence
“Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life” (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday), by Peter Ackroyd
In 1914, Keystone Studios released two short films that gave a world marching to war a reason to laugh.
Their titles, “Kid Auto Races at Venice” and “Mabel’s Strange Predicament,” are far less memorable than the character they helped to introduce: the Tramp. Wearing oversized shoes and baggy clothes, carrying a cane, and sporting a derby and just a dash of moustache, actor Charlie Chaplin waddled onto the screen.
Two years and dozens of shorts later, Chaplin was a global favorite. Over time, the Tramp became an enduring icon — and his creator a bit of a head case. Tyrannical and incredibly moody, he was completely self-absorbed to the detriment of professional and family relationships.
As writer Peter Ackroyd relates in “Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life,” the self-taught comic’s skills at pantomime fit nicely with silent films. Inside the man with the moustache, however, was a stew of anxieties fueled by a Dickensian childhood of poverty and neglect.
Ackroyd rewards his readers with a tale fit for a Chaplin film, featuring humor, tragedy and a poignant fade-out.
Douglass K. Daniel, Associated Press
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