h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The generalyl received wisdom when the 90s began was that school stories about boys or girls boarding schools like Jennings the Chalet School or Billy Bunter in Greyfriars were passe, old hat stuff from the beginning of the century.

Anyway children never read anything. TV or video games had killed reading among the young. Reading was BORING.

Then in 1997 Bloomsbuy published a small run of a book by JK Rowling called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The quiet world of children's publishing exploded. The book sold like wildfire largely by word of mouth. Further ones in the series had pre-orders on Amazon the like of which no-one had ever seen. TV companies and bookshops vied with each other to have sleep ins and have the shop open till midnight on the day before publication so that the keen ones could get their copies first.

Even allowing for a little marketing hype a major new children's author had arrived.