If you're a diehard Harry Potter fan and simply must get your hands on the highly anticipated Harry Potter and the Cursed Child book at the same time that it launches in London, here's your chance:
Virgin Megastore, at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, is hosting a launch event to celebrate the release of the new book. It’s being marketed as Harry Potter’s 36th Birthday Party, and all are invited. The only catch is, it takes place from 1:30am-4am early morning of Sunday, August 31st, to coincide with the midnight launch in London.
So, if you’re a dedicated Potter fan and don’t mind a few hours less sleep before work on Sunday, this is your chance to grab the book before the rest of the UAE wakes up.
The Harry Potter and the Cursed Child story takes place 19 years after the final Harry Potter novel ended. It is being released not in novel-form, but instead as the same rehearsal script used by actors in the London-based play, which is completely sold out until next May.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Family reunited
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.+
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.
The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.
She was held in her native country a year later.+
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
Could We Be More
Artist: Kokoroko
Label: Brownswood Recordings
Rating: 3.5/5
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