Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone translated into Scots

The first book in the Harry Potter series is set to be translated into Scots for the first time, with "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane", marking the 80th translation of the publishing phenomenon.

The announcement from Black & White Publishing’s Scots language publishing imprint, Itchy Coo, comes 20 years after J K Rowling’s debut novel. The Edinburgh-based author famously wrote the first in the wizarding septet in some of the capital's cafes and was rejected by 12 publishers before finding success with Bloomsbury. 

Translator and Itchy Coo co-founder Matthew Fit described it as “a book I’ve always wanted to translate”.

He offered the opening lines of the novel in Scots: “Mr and Mrs Dursley, o nummer fower, Privet Loan, were prood tae say that they were gey normal, thank ye awfie muckle. They were the lest fowk ye wid jalouse wid be taigled up wi onythin unco or ferlie, because they jist widnae hae onythin tae dae wi joukery packery like yon.”

The Scots language education expert has also translated a number of titles into Scots, all published by Itchy Coo, including Roald Dahl’s The Eejits and Chairlie and the Chocolate Works and David Walliams’ Mr Mingin and Billionaire Bairn. He formed Itchy Coo in 2002 with James Robertson who is now the imprint's general editor.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane will be published in October retailing at £7.99 in line with the English version. 

The publishing industry has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone this week – it was first published in 26th June 1997 – and Bloomsbury and Pottermore revealed that they will publish two new books for the British Library exhibition “Harry Potter: A History of Magic”, opening in October. The first in the wizarding series has sold more than five million copies through the Nielsen Total Consumer Market and the author is responsible for 1% of all books sold in the UK since BookScan records began in 1998.