Richard Horne
A Designer in the Right Place
In 1999, fresh from designing greetings cards and working freelance for newspapers, Richard Horne found himself walking through the doors of Bloomsbury Publishing—just in time to join the ride of a lifetime. The Harry Potter phenomenon was about to explode, and Horne was about to become one of the key creative minds behind some of its most iconic side projects.
With a background in graphic design and a growing portfolio, Richard landed a part-time job at Bloomsbury just after the release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. While he didn’t begin as a fan—he hadn’t even read the books at the time—he quickly found himself immersed in the wizarding world, working on marketing campaigns, catalogues, and promotional materials. But his defining contribution came a little later, with two slim volumes that would become treasured by fans everywhere.
When Comic Relief Came Calling
In 2000, Comic Relief approached J.K. Rowling with the idea of contributing something to raise funds for charity. Instead of a short story, Rowling offered up two Hogwarts textbooks: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages. These weren’t just fictional props—they were authentic in-universe artefacts, written in Rowling’s voice and filled with detail, humour, and personality.
To bring them to life visually, Bloomsbury turned to Horne. With no budget for external illustrators, and no time to waste, he took on the full challenge: concept, design, layout, and execution.
The results? The now-iconic red and green Hogwarts Library books—compact, well-worn, and deeply believable as objects from the Wizarding World. One was scrawled with notes from Harry and Ron; the other bore the stamps and checkout card of the Hogwarts library.
Bringing Hogwarts Textbooks to Life
Horne approached the design with a question: What would a real Hogwarts textbook look like? He imagined magical books to be colourful but aged—practical rather than ornate, with design choices that hinted at their use and history.
For Quidditch Through the Ages, he stamped the cover and added a library checkout card. For Fantastic Beasts, he chose a dragon claw and a broken egg, with a “this book belongs to Harry Potter” label pasted inside.
Subtle, clever, and immersive, Horne’s designs weren’t flashy. Instead, they were filled with world-building. They felt real—like artefacts borrowed from the Hogwarts library rather than designed for bookstore shelves.
He was even handed Rowling’s original manuscripts to work from, a responsibility that filled his daily commute with equal parts excitement and paranoia. “I felt like everyone on the bus knew what I had in my bag,” he later joked.
The Goblet of Fire Secrets
Before the Hogwarts textbooks, Horne had already made a quiet mark on the main series. He worked on the Goblet of Fire jacket during a time of intense secrecy. The title was kept hidden until the very last minute—even from the designer. “I wasn’t even given the book title until the last moments before printing,” he said. “The design to this point read ‘Harry Potter and the ******* of *******’.”
The meetings took place not in Bloomsbury’s offices, but in the corner of his Hackney bedroom, adding a surreal charm to the entire process. His name appeared on the back cover, a surprise honour arranged by Bloomsbury’s Emma Matthewson and Sarah Odedina. “My gran thought I’d drawn the dragon,” he recalled with a smile.
A Global Legacy
Though designed with a small team and minimal budget, the original covers for Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch Through the Ages went on to be used across the globe. From Japan to Finland, publishers adopted Horne’s designs wholesale. “Naively, I assumed these would be UK-only covers,” he said. “Turns out they may have held the record for the most repeated Harry Potter covers!”
What began as a one-off charity project became the foundation of Harry Potter’s extended universe. The Fantastic Beasts films would later spin off from one of these books. And for fans, these little paperbacks remain sacred texts—filled with Rowling’s wit and Horne’s immersive design touches.
A Canon within the Canon
While later editions of the books would remove Rowling’s illustrations and annotations, fans continue to regard Horne’s versions as the “true” Hogwarts editions. He saw them as curated glimpses into the wizarding world—magically abridged for Muggles. “We can only read a specially curated selection,” he joked, “the rest is only visible to wizards.”
Even years later, he remains proud of his work—and a little surprised by the longevity of it. “In publishing terms, I think they had a pretty good run!” he said, with modest pride. That run has lasted more than two decades.
The Man Behind the Magic
Though Horne left Bloomsbury in 2002, the Harry Potter series continues to follow him. His wife, Helen Szirtes, has worked as an editor on the illustrated editions by Jim Kay, and somewhere in his cellar lies a box of old Harry Potter materials—his own personal Chamber of Secrets.
Today, the covers he designed are still beloved and discussed. They have sparked theories, debates, and fan appreciation. And Richard Horne? He’s just happy they’ve meant so much to so many.
“I love that these books have been thought about so deeply,” he said. So do we.