'MR and Mrs Dursley, o nummer fower, Privet Loan, were prood tae say that they were gey normal, thank ye awfie muckle.'

 

And so begins the most successful series of books of modern times - translated into Scots.

 

To mark the 20th anniversary of the first publication of JK Rowling's first book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, it is to be released in a new Scots translation.

 

That first sentence, which propelled millions of readers into Ms Rowling's world of magicians and muggles, Hogwarts and Voldemort, is now the opening to what is the 80th translation of the book from its original English.

 

The Scots version of the book is to be published in October this year by Itchy Coo, a publisher celebrating its own anniversary of 15 years in publishing.

 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane, as it will be titled, has been translated into Scots by the writer Matthew Fitt.

He said: "It’s been a joy translating Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

"As J.K. Rowling worked away at her brilliant first novel in that Edinburgh coffee shop, there must have been a fair few Scots words and phrases floating about in the ether.

"I’ve found her prose sits up so beautifully for Scots. I suppose I could say the most challenging aspect was the book’s length but size and scale are the hallmarks of the Harry Potter novels.

"So it was just a case of getting the heid doon and trying to do it justice."

He added: "Professor McGonagall clearly stays the same in Scots but Dumbledore comes out as ‘Professor Dumbiedykes’.

"Quidditch - with a wee bit of translator’s joukery packery – worked out quite well in Scots as ‘Bizzumbaw’."

The translation joins many languages which have been used to tell Rowling's stories, including Latin and Ancient Greek.

The book is the first of the seven Harry Potter books.

The Potter stories have strong links to Scotland - the book was famously written by Rowling in Edinburgh, including in various cafes around the capital, and the development of the book was helped by a £8,000 grant from the Scottish Arts Council.

Rowling has lived and worked in Scotland through her writing career, and Hogwarts, the magical school, a prime setting of the books, is located somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland.

 

Mr Fitt said: "It’s a book I’ve always wanted to translate."

 

Fitt has written several books and translated a number into Scots, including Roald Dahl’s The Eejits and Chairlie and the Chocolate Works and David Walliams’ Mr Mingin and Billionaire Bairn.

 

He is a co-founder of the award-winning Itchy Coo, the Scots language children’s imprint at Black & White Publishing.

 

Itchy Coo has been running since 2002 and has published translations of books by Roald Dahl, Julia Donaldson, David Walliams, Alexander McCall Smith, A.A. Milne and others into Scots.