Letters from JK Rowling to terminally ill fan fetch €10,600 at auction

By Carla Feric, Press Association Entertainment Reporter

An archive of heartfelt letters written by author JK Rowling to a terminally ill fan of her best-selling Harry Potter series has sold for €10,600 at auction.

The six-piece collection of signed letters, gifts and notes dates back to the early 2000s and were sent to Jackie Whitbread and her daughter Stephanie, a fan of Rowling’s smash-hit series who was living with Juvenile Batten disease.

The collection fetched £9,150 (€10,610) at Dominic Winter auctioneers last week, and was sold to a private collector in London who bid online.

Award-winning author Rowling is famed for writing the Harry Potter fantasy novels, which chronicles the life of a young wizard and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger – all of whom are students at Hogwarts school.

The best-selling series was published in the 1990s and early 2000s, and was later adapted into eight films starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson which spanned from 2001 to 2011.

The archive of memorabilia showcases letters of correspondence between Rowling and Stephanie – a young fan who was battling a neurodegenerative disorder which causes progressive vision loss, epilepsy, and a decline in cognitive and motor functions.

Stephanie died in 2013 aged 22, and Dominic Winter auctioneers said the collection serves as “a poignant testament” to “Rowling’s generosity towards one of her readers at a particularly difficult moment in her life”.

The archive, which also includes messages to Stephanie’s mother, features two letters signed by the author which were both written on “owl post” headed paper as a nod to the magical franchise.

In one of the letters, the author apologised for being unable to obtain tickets for Stephanie to attend one of the screenings of the first Harry Potter film.

Rowling also wrote that Stephanie’s enthusiasm for her books “obviously makes me like you very much” and said she is sending Stephanie a small stuffed owl as a gift.

A signed notecard was among the memorabilia in the archive, and it featured a message from Rowling praising Stephanie’s suggestion to add a “blind wizard” to the hit series.

The collection also included a CD of the soundtrack to Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, and other related notes.

Chris Albury, a director at Dominic Winter auctioneers, said: “At the heart of this is a deeply tragic story, but it also speaks to the lasting affection readers feel for JK Rowling and the Harry Potter books.

“Written four years after the publication of the first novel in 1997, these letters show Rowling to be a deeply kind and generous person, with a genuine warmth towards her young fan, Stephanie, and her mother, Jackie.

“We knew the letters would resonate with people because of the compassion and humanity they convey, as well as the enduring passion for Harry Potter memorabilia, so it was wonderful to see them attract such strong interest and achieve £9,150 at auction.”