Growing Up With Harry Potter

The general release of The Deathly Hallows (Part II), the last HP movie, has kicked me into starting this, my first ever blog.  I am not surprised it has had this effect on me – reading the first Harry book prompted a massive turn in my writing from Lord of the Rings type fantasy to paranormal, demonic action adventure.



10 Years Ago!

The books and cassettes (remember those?) also helped me and my young kids through a divorce over a decade ago.  The 200 mile round trip to pick up and return my 4 and 6 year old to their mother every other weekend was made so much easier with the latest “Harry” being read to us by the fantastic Stephen Fry whilst we munched on sandwiches and stared at the static M25 for hours on end.

So what is it about that run of seven, long books that so radically changed my writing and comforted a young family torn apart?

You see, there are a few things that, for me, don’t work so well in the stories (no hit-man contracts or hate mail please – we all like different things, okay?). For example, I don’t like the idea of magic spells that are virtually unlimited in scope, number and power just as long as you can learn the correct words. If you can disapparate at will and heal anything but death where’s the jeopardy?

Now obviously I’m wrong because there is danger, suspense, misery and dread – all building beautifully as Harry, Ron and Hermione get older and the books darker. How did she do that?

I guess what I’m saying is that I’d struggle to do it so I’ve made my heroes and villains’ powers a lot more controlled – harder to learn and develop, limited in how much you can wield and markedly different depending on their generation.

However, back to the elements of Harry Potter that blow me away... the golden stuff.  For me it's escape and relationships.

Love, hate, despite, betrayal, loyalty, trust, suspicion, respect, awe, disdain - you name it, it’s there, powerfully pulsing between, not just the main three, but a whole cast of fantastic, three dimensional characters, each moving the story forward by cleverly judged degrees.  Most of all, the feeling that Ron, Harry and Hermione would each die for the others just clutches at your heart and makes you scream at the baddies, cheer on the goodies and keep a very close eye on that whole spectrum of grey characters.

And then there’s escape.  Now,  obviously, heading off into the realms of spells, witches, wizards and magical beasts is escapism enough but what hits me, time and again, are the places Harry finds himself in.  From the spider-ridden cupboard under the stairs, through first stepping onto the Hogwarts Express and pulling into the iconic castle, the Harry saga gives us a truly awesome parallel world. Hagrid’s hut, Diagon and Nockturn alleys, Hogsmead, the Ministry of Magic, Grimmauld Place, Azkaban and the epitome of home life in The Burrow, time and again we are effortlessly taken from our everyday lives and dropped in places fair and foul.  That’s magic if ever there was such.

Our next generation of Harry fans!

And as for our family Potter tradition?  Well, sadly, my teenagers are going to see the last Harry with their mates and it’s just me and my equally Harry-Struck wife left to see it together.  Bitter-sweet situation I suppose - you bring up your kids as best you can then have to gradually let them go their own way and just hope the values and interests you hold dear work for them... looking good so far.

However, there is hope.  We do have a 2 ½ and 5 year old almost ready to be lead through the whole saga again.  Cuddled up on sofas and listening transfixed in cars, I am as sure as sure can be that JKR will stand up to a second, third and fourth reading by these eager young eyes and ears just as she did ten years ago.