THE BOY
WHO’S LIVED...
20 YEARS
Twenty years ago, my mother introduced me to a wizard.
She thrust Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone into my pudgy hands.
The boy wizard and I were the same age: 11 years old.
I was fascinated with the cover of the book – a scrawny boy wearing spectacles
with a lightning bolt scar hidden partially by his fringe of jet-black hair,
staring in astonishment and bewilderment at the red Hogwarts Express.
It wasn’t long before I was completely obsessed with the Boy Who Lived.
As Harry, Ron and Hermione grew, so did I. Enid Blyton’s characters from
the Famous Five and Malory Towers series remained in suspended animation,
but Harry and his school mates scrambled their way from puberty to
adolescence and then adulthood with hilarious and tragic consequences,
all of which I could identify with then and sometimes even now.
They made mistakes, loads of them. Sometimes they won; sometimes,
they lost. But they trudged on, with renewed grit and resolve to do the right
thing. And, along the way, they taught me about friendship, love, loyalty,
determination, magic and imagination.
On Monday, 26 June, 2017, the day Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
turned 20, thousands of readers of all ages brought out their wands, wore their
house colours, and got nostalgic about a beloved and still cherished part of
their childhood that still lives on.*raised wand* To the boy who lived!Harry Potter
in focus
DID YOU
KNOW?
The book has
been published in
79 languages
across the world.107 million copies
of the book have
been sold so far.The entire book
consists of 76,944
words.
‘Nothing
happened’ is the
most frequently-
used word in the
Harry Potter
series.The book was
turned down by
12 publishers
before being
picked up by
Bloomsbury with
a print run of only
500 copies.PRIVET DRIVE
98WORDS: MOSHITA PRAJAPATI