Australia's Biggest Harry Potter Fan Revealed

A 13-year-old girl from Burren Junction, NSW, has been selected as Australia’s biggest Harry Potter fan. Her entry was chosen as the best in a recent competition run by Bloomsbury Publishing to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

13 year old Charlotte from Burren Junction NSW is the official Australian winner of the Harry Potter Biggest Fan competition. Her winning entry was selected from over 500 posted in bookshops throughout Australia. Charlotte’s entry stood out and included a very detailed Harry Potter Family Tree.

Charlotte has won a very special leather-bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15th Anniversary Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, as well as a boxed set of the Harry Potter books and a boxed set of the Harry Potter audio books.

3 runners-up have also won copies of the leather-bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15th Anniversary Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Bloomsbury launched a nationwide competition to find Australia’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan. Bloomsbury invited fans to write a letter of no more than 50 words explaining why they love HARRY POTTER. Fans could only enter by visiting a local bookshop and posting their letter in the specially designed postboxes. Over 200 bookshops signed up to take part.

From an idea born on a train journey, to its creation in a small cafe in Edinburgh Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the book that started a global phenomenon. Rejected by many publishers and with an initial hardback print run of 500 copies, it has now sold over 90 million copies worldwide. It is the book that put Harry’s destiny in motion and created a whole new generation of readers. It is hard to think now that before 1997 none of us knew about Hogwarts, Quidditch or Voldemort (who was voted as the favourite literary villain in a recent Bloomsbury poll).

The 3 runners up are: Hannah from Canterbury, VIC (age 19), Shirley from Hurstville, NSW (age 19) and Madeleine from Graceville in Queensland (age 20).

The Harry Potter novels have now sold approximately 450 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 73 languages.

J.K. Rowling lives with her family in Edinburgh.

Charlotte’s winning entry: