At a charity auction this week, Radcliffe, 16, the star of all four Harry Potter films, paid £30,000 for The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, the family tree of Sirius Black, a popular character in the famous wizarding books. Hand-drawn on A4 paper, the tree is signed at the top by the Edinburgh-based author.
Radcliffe’s mother Marcia Gresham bid on his behalf at Bloomsbury Auctions on the evening of February 21. She also bought two original handwritten stories, a humorous piece by Iain Banks for £980 and a short play by Tom Stoppard for £3700.
She said: “This should put paid to anyone who says Daniel doesn’t like reading. Daniel hasn’t stopped since he read the first Harry Potter book and he loves Iain Banks and Tom Stoppard.”
Over 250 bidders attended the auction in aid of Book Aid International, a charity that provides books for schools, hospitals, universities and refugee camps in Africa.
Over 40 of Britain’s major literary figures had been asked to contribute a short story of between 50 and 250 words containing the phrase “between the lines”. Contributors included P.D. James, Jacqueline Wilson, Joanna Trollope, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, David Mitchell, Sue Townsend, Joanna Lumley, Bob Geldof and Tracey Emin.
Sarah Harrity, director of Book Aid International, said: “We raised over £63,000 – more than we had hoped in our wildest dreams.”
Daniel waves his wand at Bloomsbury
He’s used to wrestling with evil wizard Lord Voldemort, but for Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe there’s more magic in owning a family tree hand-written by J.K. Rowling.
