New Times,
New Thinking.

  1. Culture
  2. Books
10 February 2018updated 31 Jan 2023 10:25am

JK Rowling created an army of liberals – now they are turning against her

“I just think she wrote many beautiful things in Harry Potter, but she doesn’t live up to them in real life.”

By Amelia Tait

Alice’s magic wand is made of pine, and it has a phoenix feather in its core. The 17-year-old Italian knows this because she uses Pottermore, a website where Harry Potter fans take quizzes to find out what life would be like if they lived in the wizarding world. On Twitter, she spends two hours a day updating her profile with clips, quotations and pictures from the books and films. But while Alice loves everything about Harry Potter (she has read each of the seven books 14 times), she does not like JK Rowling.

“I strongly dislike her,” Alice (who does not wish to disclose her surname) says. “I just think she wrote many beautiful things in Harry Potter, but she doesn’t live up to them in real life.”

Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
More than a landlord: A future of opportunity
Towards an NHS fit for the future
How drones can revolutionise UK public services