Almost every household must own a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first in J.K. Rowling's mega-successful series. But many will still want to own the beautiful new hardcover edition illustrated by award-winning British artist Jim Kay, published this week by Bloomsbury. In an interview with Helen Boyle for the publisher, Kay says he got a call from his agent, who said, "Are you sitting down? They want you to illustrate Harry Potter." The hardest thing, he says, was "the casting" – finding real children to model as the characters. He made paper and plasticine models of Hogwarts and was influenced by Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, which he played on a loop as he worked. The illustrations are contemporary, funny, atmospheric and bring detailed new perspectives to the story, as when Hagrid is seen from a child's point of view as a giant filling a page.

MEET THE ELUSIVE ELIZABETH HARROWER

Readers who have got to know Elizabeth Harrower through her reissued – and newly found – fiction from the 1950s and '60s have a chance to meet her in person. Harrower will make her first public appearance in 40 years when she speaks with her publisher, Michael Heyward of Text Publishing, at Barry O'Keefe Library in Mosman on November 4 at 7pm. On October 21, Text will release A Few Days in the Country, a collection of 12 of her stories, some published long ago in magazines and anthologies. Several have appeared recently in Australian and American magazines such as Harpers and The New Yorker, whose critic James Wood is one of many to praise her novels and recognise her as an important 20th-century writer. Text has reissued four novels and published another, In Certain Circles, which she had withdrawn from publication in 1971 before quitting writing. The stories range from satire to quiet psychological studies and feature some still recognisable Sydney types. Book through Mosman Library or Pages and Pages bookshop, whose owner Jon Page says, "Elizabeth is a local resident and a customer of the store... We are very excited to provide this wonderful opportunity for our customers to hear one of Australia's best writers who was almost lost to all of us."

INDIA BY THE BOOK

A knowledgeable guide can make India more accessible, as I found when I travelled with a small group led by Robyn Davidson, whose book Desert Places chronicled her life with the nomadic tribes of Rajasthan. Claire Scobie, author of the novel The Pagoda Tree and travel memoir Last Seen in Lhasa (and Spectrum book reviewer), will lead a literary tour to India and the Jaipur Literature Festival in January. Starting in Delhi with the sites of William Dalrymple's books, the trip takes in the Taj Mahal, Udaipur​ and two escorted days at the festival, where guests will include Dalrymple, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Gilbert, Thomas Piketty​, Stephen Fry, Roberto Calasso​ and many Indian writers. The trip ends in Mumbai, the setting for books such as Suketu Mehta's​ Maximum City, Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh and Shantaram​ by Gregory David Roberts, whose sequel The Mountain Shadow is out next week. There are meetings with local authors and all sorts of luxurious extras. See abercrombiekent.com.au.