Last of the list

British author J.K. Rowling has revealed that the long-awaited seventh and final book in her wizard saga will be called Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, sparking the next phase of Pottermania.

The ominous (signalling bad things) title had Potter aficionados (fans) puzzling over what might happen to the bespectacled hero.

"Will a favourite character die? Could Harry himself face a grisly demise (horrible death)? How will it all end?" asked Sam Harrison, children's buyer at the British bookchain Waterstone's.

"But surely, the question all Potter fans will want answered as soon as possible is - when can they get their hands on a copy?"

Fans of the series, that has already sold an estimated 300 million copies worldwide, were kept guessing with the

 publication date not set - although that did not stop United States bookseller Borders from starting to take reservations.

Rowling, whose creation has turned her into one of the world's richest and most successful authors, revealed on her website, "I'm now writing scenes that have been planned, in some cases, for a dozen years or even more.

"I am alternately elated (very happy) and over-wrought (nervous). I both want, and don't want, to finish this book (don't worry. I will)." She said in the diary entry on her official website (www.jkrowling. com) that Potter had now found his way into her dreams.

"For years now, people have asked me whether I ever dreamt that I am 'in' Harry's world," she wrote. "The answer was 'no' until a few nights ago when I had an epic dream in which I was simultaneously, Harry and the narrator."

But she gave no clues as to what will happen at the end of the upcoming book, amid speculation that some of the characters, possibly Harry himself, will die.

The Potter books have a huge influence on the financial results of their US and British publishers, Scholastic and Bloomsbury.

Though it published the paperback edition of the sixth book last year, Bloomsbury warned on December 11 that profits could widely miss analysts' forecasts because of sluggish pre-Christmas book sales and other factors.

Rowling's previous novel, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, was her most successful book in the US, selling 6.9 million copies in the first 24 hours.

Reuters