Bloomsbury Publishing PLC on Wednesday reported its highest revenue and profit ever as it continues to benefit from a boom i book reading.

For the six months to August 31, the London-based publisher the Harry Potter books reported a pretax profit of £12.9 million, a record in the company’s history, up 17% from £11.1 million a year ago. The firm said revenue rose 22% to a record £122.9 million from £100.7 million.

Bloomsbury increased its interim dividend by 5.2% to 1.41 pence per share from 1.34p.

Bloomsbury was boosted by a 69% surge in digital resources revenue to £13.6 million from £8.0 million a year ago. Profit from the unit more than doubled to £6.6 million from £2.8 million.

Net cash however decreased by 5.0% to £41.5 million from £43.7 million.

Bloomsbury shares were 4.8% higher at 427.98 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.

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