Royal Mail gives Harry Potter stamp of approval

Britain's Royal Mail will issue 11 stamps to honour the extraordinary success of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling just before the final volume of the series goes on sale.

The postal company announced Monday that millions of the stamps will be issued on July 17 as its way of celebrating "social themes and important occasions central to our way of life," said Julietta Edgar of the Royal Mail.

"There's no doubt that J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, published in dozens of languages worldwide, have made a phenomenal impact on our reading habits," said Edgar.