Here are a few statistics about J. K. Rowling you may not yet have read.

1 If all the published copies, hardback and paperback, in all translations, of the six Harry Potter books were laid flat, edge to edge, they would entirely cover Brazil.

2 If, however, the Brazilian rainforest continued to be reduced at the current rate, by the afternoon of April 17, 2057, there would be room only for a single-volume tower of all the published copies of the, by then, seven Harry Potter books. It would be 48,977 miles high. It would be the only pile of books visible from Mars.

3 Had, on May 16 last, J. K. Rowling put all her income from the five published Harry Potter books on Archer’s Folly in the 3.15 at Haydock Park, which came in by a short head at 100-1, she would have become richer than Bill Gates by £135.84. If, though, she had waited until this week’s publication of the sixth book and put all her accumulated money on Jiminy Cricket in the 2.45 at Sandown, she would now be in a position to buy North Dakota.

4 The combined weight of all the six Harry Potter hardbacks, in all translations, is 143 tonnes heavier than Mount Snowdon. Were this to be added to the combined weight of all the six Harry Potter paperbacks, it would be 61 tonnes heavier than Ben Nevis.

5 Of all the children, worldwide, who have bought a Harry Potter, only 32 per cent know it is a book. The largest category of those who think it is something else is the 27 per cent who think it is a box of tissues that opens at the side. The smallest category of those who think it is something else is the 0.0001 per cent, located in an exclusive finishing school in South Kensington, who believe it to be a deportment aid.

6 Were all the semi-colons in all the Harry Potter books, in all translations, to be typed out in a straight line, they would circle the world twice. Bear in mind that there are no semi-colons in Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Urdu or Inuit.

7 If all cigarette manufacture suddenly stopped in China, and the 73 per cent of the population who smoked managed to get their hands on all the Harry Potter books ever published, they would have enough paper to make themselves 20 roll-ups a day for the next 289 years.

8 The quantity of adhesive used to secure all the pages of the six Harry Potter volumes to their bindings would be enough to cover Wales in linoleum floor-tiles.

9 Were the President of the United States ever to yield to pressure from fundamentalist Christian objectors and order every copy of Harry Potter to be burnt, global warming would increase by 2.7 per cent. Even on the most optimistic estimate, this would leave only the top 18.7 metres of the Blackpool Tower visible.

10 However, if, in the (admittedly unlikely) event of the President of the United States having signed up to the Kyoto Protocols, the books were not burnt but pulped, enough material would be produced to rebuild Fellugia entirely in papier-mâché.

11 If each copy of every Harry Potter book printed consisted of words different from those in every other copy, it is statistically more than likely that one of the books could have been typed by a chimpanzee.

12 In a recent attempt by a team of mathematicians in Istanbul to work out how much J. K. Rowling had earned in Turkish lire (at 2,318.9 to the £), the university computer blew out all windows within a diameter of 300 metres.

13 You do not have to share J. K. Rowling’s passion for necromancy to be troubled by the number 13. All you have to share is common superstition. For if all the copies of Harry Potter ever sold were to be placed in piles of 13 around the world, the statistical likelihood of anyone walking past one of them subsequently falling through an open manhole beggars belief.

NB. All these statistics are taken from an advance copy of The Guinness Book of J.K.Rowling, to be published at midnight on July 31. Those wishing to begin queueing outside bookshops now are advised to seek tickets for places at almost any website you can shake a broomstick at.