Update: some great news that we didn’t spot at first on JKR’s new site is in the FAQ’s where she confirms that she has ‘started work’ on a Harry Potter encyclopaedia! She notes that all royalties would go to charity, as with her previous HP companion books.

Woah, big news just came out of nowhere! JK Rowling just relaunched her website JKRowling.com, with a fantastic timeline of events in her career. Check it out here.

Also just announced is the title and some details of Jo’s new novel for adults! It is to be called The Casual Vacancy, will be released on 27th September 2012, will be 480 pages long, and is described as ‘blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising’. Agency Little, Brown released this:

Little, Brown Book Group announces that the new novel for adults by J.K. Rowling is entitled The Casual Vacancy.  The book will be published worldwide in the English language in hardback, ebook, unabridged audio download and on CD on Thursday 27th September 2012.

The Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.