Readers are conservative creatures. They do not really like authors to change genres, and the more successful the writer the less they like it. Roald Dahl's adult fiction is ignored and Oscar Wilde's children's stories are all but unknown, although they are wonderful. By such a measure, J.K. Rowling, whose Harry Potter children's series has sold more than 450m copies in 73 languages, should find it easier to beat Usain Bolt at the loo metres than to make it writing fiction for grown-ups. But that has not put her off. Her first adult novel, "The Casual Vacancy", is the story of eight families from two English villages that physically lap each other, but are divided in every other way-by social class, education, money, aspiration and shoe fashions.
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