Roger.Hicks@spaceship-earth.de
J K Rowling is wrong to stop school children from adapting her work for the stage
SIR - The pupils at North Foreland Lodge School have had their permission to perform a version Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone withdrawn "because of the precedent it would set to other schools and organisations keen to stage her works" [J K Rowling says Harry can't play at school, 26 October 2000].
I would have thought that anyone with children's interests at heart would be delighted that some have been motivated to produce a play from a story that has caught their imagination and interest. The fact that other schools might follow their example might also cause the author of the story to feel highly honoured. Apparently not, in this case.
Is there something about this that I am missing - or is this the ugly face of capitalism stifling children's spontaneity and creativity for the sake of excessive profit?
J K Rowling talks about her books being very moral. It seems to me that her ability to produce the delightful Harry Potter novels was God's gift to her and that it is not moral to squeeze excessive profit from them at her young readers' expense, who after all have already made her a very rich woman.
