Fifteen in Fifteen: JK Rowling

10. JK Rowling

Of all the authors in my fifteen, JK Rowling must count as the most successful. Her name, of course, is synonymous with that of Harry Potter. I recently re-read the full series of seven books under the auspices of “research for my blog”, and they remain a masterpiece – cleverly and grippingly-written, with an overarching story strand sustained through all the books, engaging and well-rounded characters and a very believable setting. The threads which make up the books and the characters are sufficiently complex that even now, I can still have in-depth discussions with friends about topics such as the tensions in the Dursley household and why Petunia agreed to take Harry in. None of these things are particularly unusual, but they are a mark of good writing nevertheless.

  However, the Harry Potter series is more than this. I count myself as extremely fortunate that I am one of the generation who grew up with Harry Potter. I read the first book at age 11, before starting secondary school; the seventh book was published in the summer of my first year at university, by which time I was nineteen, two years older than Harry. Nearly everybody of my age that I knew had read and was to some degree obsessed by the books. We all had theories as to what would happen in the next book, and got over-excited with the release of its title or the least snippet of information. We knew someone would die in the Goblet of Fire, and there was a great feeling of let-down when we discovered on reading it it was only Cedric Diggory. We grumbled about Ginny’s relationship with Harry and were somewhat saddened by Sirius’s death. A month before the Deathly Hallows came out, my university friends and I sat round one evening and discussed what might happen in the seventh book – whether Harry would die, whether Snape was evil, what the Horcruxes were – with an intensity usually reserved for our conversations about religion. It was common practice to pre-order the books, and you would have the release date written in your diary months in advance. I never queued overnight to collect my copy at the midnight openings, but my friend and I would race one another to finish the book (she won. Every time), and normal life was suspended until you did. I read the Half-Blood Prince over my friend’s shoulder between opening acts at an REM concert in Hyde Park, and the Deathly Hallows with my cousins when they were visiting. I’m often surprised when people tell me they haven’t read the Harry Potter books, or on attempting to engage them in a discussion about the underlying themes of the books I discover they don’t know them well at all. If you are one of these people, then I’m sorry. This is why.

The Harry Potter books are more than just a well-written series of novels which have since been turned into some very disappointing films. For me, Harry Potter is a cultural context, a common language, an experience shared with the majority of my peers. Whether it’s Facebook quizzes to determine your Harry Potter boyfriend, or a friend providing chocolate to cheer a lot of miserable students up “because chocolate keeps the Dementors away”, we all know what these things mean. A friend who was struggling with practical work was even relieved to be told he was “a bit of a Hermione”. For anyone who hasn’t read the books… well, it’s a reasonably good series of fantasy stories about a schoolboy wizard, with an interesting undercurrent about the nature of good and evil. If it’s not your thing, fair enough. But for anyone who grew up with Harry Potter, these books will always hold a certain magic – a remembrance of an experience that none of us will ever quite get again.

And if there is anyone remaining out there who hasn’t seen Potter Puppet Pals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4