The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 90

an II: BUSES IE! READ Too busy to read the hot hooks? Let us read them for you Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling (Bloomsbury, 1 0.99), digested in the style of the original Harry was forbidden to leave the castle while Black was on the loose. But using his Invisibility Cloak, Harry, Ron and Hermione sneaked out to visit their friend Hagrid. He was sad because Buckbeak, his pet Hippogriff (half horse, half eagle), had been slaughtered. On the way home, Ron was dragged down a tunnel by a dog. Harry and Hermione followed.

"It's atrap!" shouted Ron. Too late. There was Sirius Black. They fought. Harry was about to kill him when Professor Lupin burst in.

"No Harry! It wasn't Sirius who betrayed your parents, but another man called Peter Pettigrew, now living as Ron's rat Scabbers! Sirius is your friend, Pettigrew is your enemy!" "I am your godfather," said Sirius. "I would never have betrayed your parents." Just as the Dementors whisked Sirius away to suck out his soul, and as Scabbers escaped into the night, Harry realised Sirius was indeed a friend. "No" said Harry. "He's innocent!" There was only one way to save him. By going back in time and rescuing Buckbeak, Harry used the beast to fly up to Sirius's window in the tower and saved him.

HARRY Potter was not normal. For a start, he hated the summer holidays. An orphan, he was forced to stay with horrible Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia and their fat son Dudley. They hated Harry for being a wizard. They were Muggles, non-magic people, and did not let Harry mention anything to do with his beloved Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Your parents were bad eggs," said Aunt Marge, another nasty relation, one night. "And look how they burdened their decent, hardworking relatives when they died!" Harry snapped. It was forbidden by the Ministry of Magic to cast spells outside school, but he couldn't resist. Aunt Marge inflated like a giant Harry fled the house and caught a Knight Bus, a service for stranded wizards and witches. It took him to London, where he stayed at the Leaky Cauldron and learnt that Sirius Black, a murderer imprisoned in Azkaban fortress, had escaped.

Worse still, Black was heading for Hogwarts to kill Harry. He wanted to avenge the death of "You-Know-Who" evil Lord Voldemort whom Harry had killed to avenge the death of his parents (see earlier Harry Potter books). And if you really are pressed: The digested read, digested Harry also learnt that Black had been his father's best friend until he betrayed him to Voldemort. When term began, everyone feared for Harry's safety despite the presence of Dementors, Azkaban guards who suck out people's souls. Harry was just happy to be back with Ron and Hermione, even if Hermione's cat kept attacking Ron's rat Scabbers.

A great new teacher, Professor Lupin, taught them how to ward off Boggarts, shape-shifters that become whatever you most fear. Sirius Black wants to kill mini-wizard Harry Potter. Dementors want to kill Black. But he turns out to be a goody, so Harry saves him FIVE 9F A KINO I This week: five Inside accounts of the IRA WBE8ES8M Wwuiiwmiiiiinwiii 1 Killing Rage, by Eamon Collins (Granta, 6.99) Collins simultaneously I worked as an HM Customs officer, Sinn Fein representa- tjve' and "death planner" for I the IRA "nutting He turned supergrass, retracted, then grassed on supergrass-I'es. Typical day: "The bomb Bwent the' walls were marks of blood and flesh, I Someone nad been The Informer, by Sean O'Callaghan (Corgi, 6.99) The head of the IRA's South-, em Command turned grassed for the Garda, confessed to terrorist crimes, received a 539-year sentence, was released by royal prerogative, then wrote political commentary for the Sunday Times.

Typical day: "He 'No please, I steadied, took aim and fired." State of mind: Prospects for peace: still "a long way" to go. PS: O'Callaghan now lectures and lunches at Westminster. "I am my own man. I can say and write what I please." Dead Ground, by Raymond Gilmour (Warner Books, 6.99) Catholic Deny man Gilmour worked as a roadie, an IRA man and an undercover agent for Special Branch. Typical day: "The Waterside Unit knee-capped Culm Michael and he bled to We got the wigs ready for the next day's job." State of mind: "scared Prospects for peace: "Martin McGuinness has a creepy air about him." PS: Gilmour lives under an assumed identity somewhere in Europe "I sleep with a gun under my Fifty Dead Men Walking, by Martin McQartland (Blake, 5.99) IRA man McGartland worked undercover for MI5 until the Provies found out and tried to stiff him.

Typical day: "The IRA hung my brother upside down, beat him with iron bars, smashed his arms with a baseball bat and hit his body with a plank of wood with nails embedded in it. He was unable to walkforthree months' State of mind: Prospects for peace: no comment. PS: McGartland was shot seven times in June. He survived. The Nemesis File, by Paul Bruce (Blake, 5.99) SAS officer Bruce grew his hair, "dressed in civvies" and mingled with "smerfs" (IRA informants) in order to execute "IRA bastards" and bury them in unmarked graves.

Typical day: "I said, 'You fucking IRA cunt, we will shoot you in the legs and put a couple of rounds into your State of mind: "on the edge of a nervous Prospects for PS: Bruce underwent 1 8 months of alcohol rehabilitation, claiming "I could not control the cally burned state or mind: "death was my reason for being." Prospects for peace: "the only final solution is the PS: Collins was stabbed to death by the Provisional IRA in January. I 16 The Editor July 16.