Potty over Potter

The school curriculum is designed to make Harry and his friends masters in the sciences of Herbology, Charms, Magic Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts, among others. At school, Harry is a deft player of Quidditch, the school’s traditional sport, which has teams of seven players divided up into Chasers, Beaters, Keepers, Seekers and Bludgers, chasing four flying balls called Quaffles on broomsticks, and trying to score a Golden Snitch.

J.K. Rowling (the publishers preferred the initials to her name Joanne Kathleen because they feared this would put boy readers off) got the idea for the Harry Potter books while on a train from London to Manchester. Her books, which begin with the 11 year-old Harry discovering his magical powers and taking his place at Hogworts, are old-fashioned tales of good versus evil. They have twisting plots, full of surprises and a vocabulary all of their own, as befitting a world inhabited by wizards and witches.

Critics, mostly adult, have called Rowling books `one dimensional’, “Billy Bunter on broomsticks”, and said their literary merit was “scarcely higher than a Spice Girls lyric”. But such criticism is not normally targeted at what is quintessentially children’s writing and may have been provoked by Rowling’s nomination for the Booker Prize last year. But as children’s books go, Rowling has understandable appeal. Like Roald Dhal, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Rowling seems to understand a child’s comic and cruel view of the adult world and of `normal’ life as defined by them.

Rowling is possibly the biggest publishing sensation of modern times. More than 35 million copies of the first three Potter books, Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban have been sold. Four years ago, she was a part-time school teacher trying to raise her daughter alone in Edinburgh. Today, with an estimated Å“ 14.5 million annual income, this 34 year-old woman is third on the list of UK women earners.

“Some old witch in Bath had a book that you could never stop reading!” one of Harry’s friends tells him. “You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed.” As Rowling’s fourth and fattest Harry Potter book goes on sale world wide, you begin to wonder if he was talking about her.