Potterheads can find out what house they are in, what their Patronus is, visit Platform 9¾ and even play Quidditch. Since then, Pottermania has shown no signs of abating: you can find Harry Potter Lego, toys, video games, a Harry Potter theme park, a successful stage play ( H arry Potter and the Cursed Child ) and more. In 2001, the books were catapulted to an even wider audience with the release of the Hollywood film of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The films launched the careers of Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione and even Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory. The books are widely credited with changing the landscape of children’s fiction and have won multiple prizes including the Nestlé Smarties Prize and the British Book Award. Author JK Rowling wrote the books over seven years in various cafés in Edinburgh as she struggled to make ends meet as a single mum, never dreaming that Harry Potter would become one of the best-known book characters ever written. The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ( Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the USA) was published in 1997 and, since then, the seven-book-series has gone on to break all kinds of records, selling over 500 million copies worldwide. The fact that Harry and his friends are casting spells and fighting evil against the backdrop of normal school life, whilst dodging teachers, doing homework and navigating friendships, conflicts and even romance, makes them all the more thrilling. These adventures are just part of the books’ appeal. Harry is pitched into many hair-raising adventures, but the friends’ courage, loyalty and curiosity mean they triumph time and again. However, Harry cannot escape his tragic past: as “the Boy Who Lived” his destiny is tied to that of the evil Lord Voldemort (or “You Know Who”). The boy wizard meets his first real friends on the Hogwart’s Express - serious but kind Hermione Granger and fun and fiery-haired Ron Weasley - and feels like he has come home at last. Harry enters the magical world via the legendary platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross station and never looks back. The shocking news that Harry is a wizard is the start of an exciting adventure to meet his destiny. But on Harry’s eleventh birthday, any illusion of normality is rudely shattered when half-giant Rubeus Hagrid bursts into the house to deliver Harry a letter from Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After all, his bedroom is the cupboard under the stairs, his cousin Dudley is a moron and his aunt and uncle treat him as an inconvenience. Harry Potter’s life with the “perfectly normal” Dursleys at Number 4 Privet Drive leaves a lot to be desired. Stage Play Script: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016) Not only are the Dursleys as despicable as ever (though Rowling drops a few intriguing hints that there may be more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye), but dark forces are reaching out for Harry even in Little Whinging, the drab suburb that had seemed too ordinary for magic.īut when he finally gets back to the wizarding world, Harry finds things aren't much better there: Voldemort is gaining followers Dumbledore is avoiding Harry the Daily Prophet has been running articles implying that Harry is publicity crazed and Dumbledore is senile (it seems that even in the wizarding world one defeats one's enemies by discrediting them in the media) Hogwarts is under siege by the Ministry of Magic, which has appointed a High Inquisitor to wrest control of the school from Dumbledore and ensure that the students do not learn any defense against the dark arts and Hagrid is missing.Īdded to these potentially fatal struggles are the stresses of growing up: Harry is a bit older, a bit taller, and a lot angrier Fifth Year is the time for the first round of testing (Ordinary Wizarding Levels, or O.W.L.s) and career counseling Harry has his first girlfriend (and first kiss, mercifully not described) and Ron and Hermione have both been appointed prefects (along with Draco Malfoy), but Harry has not.Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997)īook 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)īook 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)īook 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)īook 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)īook 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)īook 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) Harry's summer break with the Dursley's is more wretched than usual in HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, the fifth installment in the most popular book series of all time.
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