The following blog entry was written by Meredith Matthews, an editor on Current Health magazine.
Like her boy-wizard Harry Potter, author J.K. Rowling recently faced a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, and worked a bit of magic to get past it. In Rowling's case, the challenge was simply getting on board an airplane without being separated from the latest (and last) Harry Potter manuscript.
Last month, British police arrested a number of people who they said were planning to blow up airplanes. The plot involved using explosive materials smuggled in through normal-looking containers, like sports-drink bottles. After this incident, U.K. security officials banned all carry-on luggage on airplanes for a few weeks.
During this time, Rowling was returning from the United States, where she had read part of the new manuscript at a charity event. On her website, she tells how she had to convince security staff at a New York airport to let her take the manuscript on board. Since "a large part of it was handwritten," according to Rowling, it's no wonder she didn't want to check it with the rest of her luggage!
To Rowling's relief and that of Harry Potter fans everywhere, the quibbling worked. "They let me take it on, thankfully, bound up in elastic bands," she writes on her website. "I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't; sailed home, probably."
