Bloomsbury Publishing, publisher of the Harry Potter series, is pinning its hopes on the Canadian author Margaret Atwood and celebrity chefs such as Heston Blumenthal to boost sales in the second half of the year, after reporting a steep decline in first-half profits.

Pre-tax profit dropped from £5.37m ($8.69m) to £1.82m in the six months to June 30 on revenue that fell 16 per cent to £35.3m. Earnings per share dropped from 4.96p to 1.7p.