Harry potter
Why don't I come with a trigger warning?
Last week brought the news that some universities have attached more ‘trigger warnings’ to certain books, concerned that students may…
J.K. Rowling and the death of nuance
There are few good things to say about the public conversation around transgender issues, which all too often shows us…
Harry Potter and the strange absence of J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts this weekend for a 20th anniversary special. He was joined in the Gryffindor common room…
The attacks on J.K. Rowling only prove her point
It is often said that J.K. Rowling is uncancellable. So rich and bankable is the Harry Potter author — now…
Why the targeting of J.K.Rowling is so terrifying
I know from bitter experience that you don’t have to be a best-selling author to be hounded by the trans…
Harry Potter meets Ikea: Backlot Cafe reviewed
Harry Potter is a fictional orphan locked in a cupboard by his aunt and uncle, after which he discovers a…
The Disneyfication of the moral universe
‘I’m sitting here struggling for words and my friend nailed it: “She was our Princess Leia.”’ With those words, Dr…
JK Rowling’s fundamental mistake
I had my first doubts about Lord Hall, the former director-general of the BBC, when he addressed a group of…
Speak up for J.K. Rowling
Nerds everywhere are frantically googling tattoo removal services this week, as the author who inspired their ink failed to STFU…
Creatures of the night: why do we find them irresistible?
When it was recently announced that Robert Pattinson, who played the vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight films, had secured…
A mess: Fantastic Beasts reviewed
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the sequel to the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find…
Peter Rabbit ‘allergy bullying’? I’m allergic to all this constant outrage
I’m often surprised by what people are offended by. Like the makers of Peter Rabbit, the new animated feature from…
The best of British — from Agatha Christie to the YBAs
Is it true that, having lost an empire, we reinvented ourselves as an island of entertainers? Do we channel the…
Spirit of place: the landscape of myth and magic
We live in disenchanted times. We barely do God, most of us don’t do magic and frenzied consumerism occupies our…
Under Harry Potter’s spell: most children’s books have become shamelessly derivative, says Melanie McDonagh
Go to any bookshop — always supposing you’re fortunate enough to have any left in your neck of the woods…
Barry Humphries’s diary: The bookshop ruined by Harry Potter
Do fish have loins? Last Tuesday, in a pretentious restaurant, I ordered a ‘loin of sea trout’. It looked just…
