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TEENAGE FAN TO INTERVIEW JK ROWLING

Monday 11 July 2005 12:03am

A teenage Harry Potter fan has won the right to carry out the only UK television interview with the author JK Rowling hours after her latest book is released.

Owen Jones, from Cardiff, beat off thousands of Potter fans to have the highly sought-after chat with Rowling next Saturday, after the launch of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at midnight on Friday.

The 14-year-old won the opportunity by providing judges with a list of questions he would like to ask the author, and then was shortlisted to take part in a quiz with his mum.

He said: "I told the judges I would like to ask her if Harry Potter's life was a kind of childhood fantasy for her, and of course, what's going to happen in the next book.

"Then I had to face the quiz. I was swotting like mad for that," he said.

"The moment I came through the door from school mum was firing Harry Potter questions at me."

Viewers can see the quiz on ITV1's Harry Potter at the Castle: The Quest for the Ultimate Harry Potter Fan.

Owen said: "I was nervous when I realised how good the other contestants were. Some of the questions were really hard. I feel ecstatic to have won. It's brilliant."

His mum Allison, 38, said: "I am very proud and pleased as punch. Owen is a fantastic reader, if anyone deserves to be the ultimate Harry Potter fan it's him."

Owen's interview will be screened in a TV special called Harry Potter at the Castle: The JK Rowling nterview on Sunday at 5.30pm on ITV1.