Pottermania - Ilkley Good evening, or is that good very early morning, Potter fans. Yorkshire Soul, along with Mrs YS., and we're reporting (almost) live from the launch of the most recent and final Harry Potter book. Crowds were gathering early outside Ilkley's purveyors of literature with some brave souls reporting that they had braved the bleak midsummer (i.e. howling wind and driving rain) conditions since 7pm that evening in order to get their geeky hands on the final installment of JK Rowlings pension plan. Please note, the above picture is not blurred, it's atmospheric alright! There were dozens queueing at The Grove Bookshop (a fine and independent business), hundreds more at W H Smith (homogeneous high street doesn't quite know what it wants to be store), and I'm glad to report that some fine enterprising and fairly pissed young men had gone to the effort of stealing the advertising banner from Tesco (Superhyperglobalwe'regonnaowntheworld) and paraded it in front of the crowds of geeks. Lucy A, fine waitress of this parish, was first in line at The Grove, and sported a fine Harry-esque scar, very fetching Lucy. Scars were de riguer in Ilkley tonight, as these two lasses in the WHSmiths queue show, these two had also, quite sensibly considering the prevailing weather conditions, gone for a combination bin bag / wizards cloak ensemble to protect them both from rain and the necromantic power of Lord Voldemort. Also in attendance were numerous representatives of the drunken youth of Ilkley, who, in 'hilarious' fashion, repeatedly shouted "Harry dies", ah, being dumb is so funny when you're pissed. As far as I'm concerned Rowling is fantastic, anyone who can create this sort of excitement for a book deserves all the plaudits and money that will be thrown her way. Also, geeks are cool, and speaking as a comics / sci-fi / fantasy / Tolkienite / MMORG / Eve Online / Pardus / D&D / cricket / wine geek, I should know. The geeks will inherit the earth, because we bothered to read books to find out how.