Джоан Роулинг - Quidditch Through the Ages

Bloomsbury and Comic Relief would like to say a big thank you to all these people for their time, dedication and gorgeous contributions.

Production: Helena Coryndon and Penny Edwards

Cover design: Richard Horne

Text design, Whizz Hard logo design and typesetting Polly Napper

Covers: George Over Limited

Paper supply: Borregaard Hellefos AS, McNaughton Publishing Papers Ltd

Cover board: Iggesund Paperboard Europe

Sales: David Ward, Kathleen Farrar, Barry Horrocks and the Bloomsbury sales force

Distribution: Macmillan Distribution Limited

Marketing: Minna Fry, Rosamund de la Hey, Colette Whitehouse, and the Bloomsbury marketing team

Publicity: Katie Collins and the Bloomsbury publicity team and Rebecca Salt and Nicky Stonehill at Colman Getty, Edinburgh

Copy‑editing and proof‑reading: Ingnd von Essen, proof-reading: Dick Clayton

Editor: Emma Matthewson

Christopher Little, Nigel Newton, Sarah Odedina, Colin Adams, Bun Salvary, Fiddy Henderson, Ele Fountain, Dorchester Typesetting,

and booksellers around the world for their support.

And of course J. К. Rowling for creating this book and so generously giving all her royalties from it to Comic Relief Comic Relief (UK) was set up in 1985 by a group of British comedians to raise funds for projects promoting social justice and helping to tackle poverty. Every single penny Comic Relief receives from the public goes to work where it is most needed, through internationally recognised organisations like Save the Children and Oxfam. Money from worldwide sales of this book will go to help the very poorest communities in the very poorest countries in

the world; money from sales within the UK will go to UK projects as well.

Comic Relief is a registered charity, number 326568

Text copyright © J. К. Rowling 200I

Illustrations and hand lettering copyright © J К Rowling 200I

First published in Great Britain in 200I

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 38 Soho Square, London, W1D 3HB

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0 7475 5471 4

Printed in Great Britain

in association with

129b Diagon Alley, London

'Kennilworthy Whisp's painstaking research has uncovered a veritable treasure trove of hitherto unknown facts about the sport of warlocks. A fascinating read.

Bathilda Bagshot, author, A History of Magic

'Whisp has produced a thoroughly enjoyable book; Quidditch fans are sure to find it both instructive and entertaining.

Editor, Which Broomstick?

'The definitive work on the origins and history of Quidditch. Highly recommended.

Brutus Scrimgeour, author, The Beaters' Bible

'Mr Whisp shows a lot of promise. If he keeps up the good work, he may well find himself sharing a photo shoot with me one of these days!

Gilderoy Lockhart, author, Magical Me

'Bet you anything it'll be a best-seller. Go on, I bet you.

Ludovic Bagman, England and Wimbourne Wasps Beater

'I've read worse.

Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet

KENNILWORTHY WISP is a renowned Quidditch expert (and, he says, fanatic). He is the author of many Quidditch‑related works, including The Wonder of Wigtown Wanderers, He Flew Like a Madman (a biography of 'Dangerous' Dai Llewellyn) and Beating the Bludgers — A Study of Defensive Strategies in Quidditch .

Kennilworthy Whisp divides his time between his home in Nottinghamshire and 'wherever Wigtown Wanderers are playing this week'. His hobbies include backgammon, vegetarian cookery and collecting vintage broomsticks.

QUIDDITCH THROUGH THE AGES is one of the most popular titles in the Hogwarts school library. Madam Pince, our librarian, tells me that it is 'pawed about, dribbled on and generally maltreated' nearly every day — a high compliment for any book. Anyone who plays or watches Quidditch regularly will relish Mr Whisp's book, as do those of us interested in wider wizarding history. As we have developed the game of Quidditch, so it has developed us; Quidditch unites witches and wizards from all walks of life, bringing us together to share moments of exhilaration, triumph and (for those who support the Chudley Cannons) despair.

It was with some difficulty, I must own, that I persuaded Madam Pince to part with one of her books so that it might be copied for wider consumption. Indeed, when I told her it was to be made available to Muggles, she.was rendered temporarily speechless and neither moved nor blinked for several minutes. When she came to herself she was thoughtful enough to ask whether I had taken leave of my senses. I was pleased to reassure her on that point and went on to explain why I had taken this unprecedented decision.

Muggle readers will need no introduction to the work of Comic Relief, so I now repeat my explanation to Madam Pince for the benefit of witches and wizards who have purchased this book. Comic Relief uses laughter to fight poverty, injustice and disaster. Widespread amusement is converted into large quantities of money (174 million pounds since they started in 1985 — over thirty‑four million Galleons). By buying this book — and I would advise you to buy it, because if you read it too long without handing over money you will find yourself the object of a Thief's Curse — you too will be contributing to this magical mission.

I would be deceiving my readers it I said that this explanation made Madam Pince happy about handing over a library book to Muggles. She suggested several alternatives, such as telling the people from Comic Relief that the library had burned down, or simply pretending that I had dropped dead without leaving instructions. When I told her that on the whole I preferred my original plan, she reluctantly agreed to hand over the book, though at the point when it came to let go of it, her nerve tailed her and I was forced to prise her fingers individually from the spine.

Although I have removed the usual library‑book spells from this volume, I cannot promise that every trace has gone. Madam Pince has been known to add unusual jinxes to the books in her care. I myself doodled absent‑mindedly on a copy of Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration last year and next moment found the book beating me fiercely around the head. Please be careful how you treat this book. Do not rip out the pages. Do not drop it in the bath. I cannot promise that Madam Pince will not swoop down on you, wherever you are, and demand a heavy fine.

All that remains is for me to thank you for supporting Comic Relief and to beg Muggles not to try Quidditch at home; it is, of course, an entirely fictional sport and nobody really plays it. May I also take this opportunity to wish Puddlemere United the best of luck next season.

No spell yet devised enables wizards to fly unaided in human form. Those few Animagi who transform into winged creatures may enjoy flight, but they are a rarity. The witch or wizard who finds him‑ or herself Transfigured into a bat may take to the air, but, having a bat's brain, they are sure to forget where they want to go the moment they take flight. Levitation is commonplace, but our ancestors were not content with hovering five feet from the ground. They wanted more. They wanted to fly like birds, but without the inconvenience of growing feathers.