The Casual Vacancy - Cover Release

The Cover Release for The Casual Vacancy

by J.K. Rowling

Little, Brown Book Group releases the cover for The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, along with updated cover copy, details of the audio reader and confirmed page extent.

The Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other.

Cover design by Mario J. Pulice
Illustration and hand lettering by Joel Holland

Published worldwide in the English language on 27th September 2012 in hardback (£20.00), ebook (£11.99), unabridged audio download (£20.00) and on CD (£30.00).


When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other.

The Casual Vacancy
512 pages

ISBN 9781408704202     (hardback) price £20.00
ISBN 9781405519229     (ebook) price £11.99
ISBN 9781405519212     (audio download) £20.00
ISBN 9781405519205     (CD) price £30.00

The audio edition of The Casual Vacancy will be read by Tom Hollander, an experienced star of stage and screen.


Notes to Editors
J.K. Rowling is the author of the bestselling Harry Potter series of seven books, published between 1997 and 2007, which have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, are distributed in  more than 200 territories, translated into 73 languages, and have been turned into eight blockbuster films.  She has also written two small volumes, which appear as the titles of Harry’s schoolbooks within the novels.  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through The Ages were published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books in March 2001 in aid of Comic Relief.  In December 2008, The Tales of Beedle the Bard was published in aid of the Children’s High Level Group, and quickly became the fastest selling book of the year

As well as an OBE for services to children’s literature, J.K. Rowling is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees including the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, France’s Légion d’Honneur, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and she has been a Commencement Speaker at Harvard University USA.  She supports a wide number of charitable causes through her charitable trust Volant, and is the founder of Lumos, a charity working to transform the lives of disadvantaged children

Little, Brown Book Group: Three times winner of the KPMG Publisher of the Year Award, in 1994, 2004 and 2010, Little, Brown has an award-winning publishing programme across eight imprints: Little, Brown, Abacus, Virago, Sphere, Orbit, Atom, Piatkus and Hachette Digital. Little, Brown Book Group has been a member of the Hachette UK group since 2006.  Further information can be found at www.littlebrown.co.uk.

Hachette UK is the most diversified book publishing group in the UK, with a unique policy of encouraging its publishing houses to operate autonomously. Amongst its houses and imprints are Hachette Children’s Books, Headline Publishing Group, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodder Education, John Murray, Little, Brown Book Group, Octopus Publishing Group, Orion Publishing Group, Sceptre, Virago and Weidenfeld & Nicolson. with international publishers and distributors Hachette Australia, Hachette New Zealand, Hachette India, Hachette Ireland and Hachette Middle East. Further information can be found at www.hachette.co.uk


Press Contacts

Little, Brown Book Group: Tamsin Kitson, tamsin.kitson@littlebrown.co.uk.

For further information about J.K. Rowling, please visit her website: www.jkrowling.com.

by J.K. Rowling

The Casual Vacancy

Little, Brown Book Group announces that the new novel for adults by J.K. Rowling is entitled The Casual Vacancy. The book will be published worldwide in the English language in hardback, ebook, unabridged audio download and on CD on Thursday 27th September 2012.
Little, Brown

The Casual Vacancy

By J.K. Rowling
The first adult novel by J.K. RowlingWhen Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other.This is a wonderful novel. JK Rowling's skills as a storyteller are on a par with RL Stevenson, Conan Doyle and PD James. Here, they are combined with her ability to create memorable and moving characters to produce a state-of-England novel driven by tenderness and furyA needle-sharp and darkly comic expose of today's class-ridden society . . . A highly readable morality tale for our timesThe Casual Vacancy is a stunning, brilliant, outrageously gripping and entertaining evocation of British society today. [J.K. Rowling] has done a rather brave thing and pulled it off magnificentlyOne marvels at the skill with which Rowling weaves such vivid characters in and out of each other's livesHeartbreaking - turning the page seems unbearable, but not as much as putting down the book would beAn exquisite and occasionally moving black comedy . . . The acid test - I suspect it would do well even if its author's name weren't J.K. RowlingA big, ambitious, brilliant, profane, funny, deeply upsetting and magnificently eloquent novel of contemporary England . . . This is a deeply moving book by somebody who understands both human beings and novels very, very deeplyInsightful, meaningful, daring and resolutely challenging to tabloid assumptions regarding the moral worth of individualsThe action bowls along compellingly, most of the characters are vividly drawn and there are some sharp - often very sharp - observations about their social pretensions . . . a bold and distinctive effortThis is a novel of insight and skill, deftly drawn and, at the end, cleverly pulled together. It plays to her strengths as a storytellerThe Casual Vacancy is a brilliant novel, entertaining, intelligent, moving, passionate and hard-hitting; touching on familiar subjects but approaching them with great originality and skill. Moreover, it's unputdownable . . . The novel is a triumphRowling is a great storyteller with a clear eye and a warm heart, and The Casual Vacancy is a moving and immensely pleasurable novelJ.K. Rowling is the author of the bestselling Harry Potter series of seven books, published between 1997 and 2007, which have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, are distributed in more than 200 territories, translated into 73 languages, and have been turned into eight blockbuster films. She has also written two small volumes, which appear as the titles of Harry's schoolbooks within the novels. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages were published by Bloomsbury Children's Books in March 2001 in aid of Comic Relief. In December 2008, The Tales of Beedle the Bard was published in aid of the Children's High Level Group, and quickly became the fastest selling book of the year.

As well as an OBE for services to children's literature, J.K. Rowling is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees including the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, France's Legion d'Honneur, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and she has been a Commencement Speaker at Harvard University USA. She supports a wide number of charitable causes through her charitable trust Volant, and is the founder of Lumos, a charity working to transform the lives of disadvantaged children.THE CASUAL VACANCY has sold over a million copies in its Little, Brown UK editions to dateIt was UK Number One on the Sunday Times chart for 12 weeksIt has been translated into over 40 languages and had been a bestseller around the worldIt was chosen by users of Goodreads as their favourite novel of 2012It is to be adapted into a BBC1 drama, which is planned for 2014
The Casual Vacancy

J.K. Rowling Events

J.K. Rowling will be appearing at the following public events to discuss her first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy.