PUBLISHER Bloomsbury said last night that a strong publishing programme for the second half should push up profits.
Upcoming titles, including actress Sheila Hancock's book The Two of Us, about her late husband, actor John Thaw, are expected to be big sellers.
Bloomsbury said it had continued to make good progress to date after benefiting from a reasonably buoyant UK book market.
The Harry Potter publisher said trading since the beginning of the year had been in line with expectations, helped by the appearance of Joanna Trollope's Brother and Sister on bestseller lists.
Bloomsbury, which announced a 38 per cent rise in profits in March, said schoolboy wizard Harry Potter continued to be hugely popular with readers, boosted by the unprecedented success of the third film - Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, released on May 31.
The publishing house also announced it had sold its loss-making Blue Guide travel list to a specialist travel guide company.
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