Harry Potter is a wizard. He is in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Little does he know that this year will be just as eventful as the last ...The second in the Harry Potter series to be translated into Latin for the first time, this follows in the steps of other great children's classics.

The huge task of translating into Latin (most translations are done from Latin) has been undertaken by Peter Needham, who taught Latin at Eton for over 30 years.

James Morwood, of Oxford University, has said of the translation of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone": "The translation is great stuff.

It is accurate and fluent, but it is much more than that.

It has been carried off with wit, inventiveness, sensitivity and panache.

I find it impossible to think of its being better done."