London: When Bloomsbury Publishing founder Nigel Newton brought home a manuscript for “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by a then unknown J.K. Rowling, his daughter Alice described it as “possibly one of the best books an 8/9 year old could read”.
Twenty-five years later, it is one of the biggest selling novels of all time after capturing the hearts and imaginations of children around the world.
“I gave it to Alice who took it upstairs… We had the chapters up to Diagon Alley at that stage,” Newton told Reuters.
“She kind of floated down the stairs an hour later saying: ‘Dad, this book is better than anything you’ve shown me’.”
Sunday marks 25 years since Rowling’s first book about the magical world of witches and wizards was published.