Picture the scene. It is the middle of the night and an excited little girl is waiting in a long queue outside a bookshop. She is wearing long black robes, a pointy witch's hat and is clutching a wooden stick. Standing next to her is a man dressed in a tattered overcoat, a fake beard and boots. Pumpkins, toy owls and glowing lanterns are hanging in the bookshop window ...
If you hadn’t guessed, the little girl is of course me, and the man is my dad. It is June 2003 and we are waiting in line at midnight for J.K. Rowling’s latest Harry Potter book, dressed up as Harry Potter's best friend, the bookworm Hermione, and the lovable giant, Hagrid. We both love Harry Potter and have queued up for every new film and book in costume with all the other fans. The Harry Potter series was an enormous part of my childhood. Whenever I met a new friend, one of the first questions I asked was 'Do you like Harry Potter?' I spent my weekends brewing potions using old bottles of shampoo and looking for sticks in my garden that would make good wands; I even waited by the letterbox on my eleventh birthday, hoping I would receive an invitation to Hogwarts by owl post!
As an adult, I still adore Harry Potter and have visited the film studios in London three times! So, when J.K. Rowling announced that the wizarding world would be returning to the big screen, I could hardly contain my excitement! Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set in 1920s New York. It tells the story of the wizard Newt Scamander, a former Hogwarts student, who travels the world collecting magical creatures in his briefcase. The film was released in November, and as I am currently working in France, I went to watch it in French! The film is excellent; the special effects are very convincing, the soundtrack is beautiful and I loved all the magical creatures (my favourite was the mischievous niffler, a weasel-like animal with a love for shiny things!). Luckily for Potter fans, J.K. Rowling has announced that there will be five more Fantastic Beasts films; I'm counting down the days until the next one ...
Do you have a favourite book or film series?
