Today 20 years ago “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” – the first book of the Harry Potter series was published. And it wasn´t that easy for J.K. Rowling to find a publisher, her book was rejected many times, even trying it with a male pseudonym didn´t help. But we all know what happened after Harry hit the shelves – it became a huge success, was translated into 79 languages, people of all ages waited in lines for hours when a new volume was released and then there were the movies. And Rowling herself, somewhen between having that idea on a trainride to becoming the second richest woman after the Queen, she also became kind of a heroine herself not only on twitter.
While writing her first books Rowling followed the tradition of many other writer before her – it was cheaper to buy a cup of tea or coffee than paying the heating at home, so “The Elephant House” and “Nicholson’s Café”(now a chinese restaurant) in Edinburgh became her writing space.
In July I´m going to visit some more places linked to Hermione, Harry and Ron like the viaduct the Hogwarts Express travels on and can´t wait. Until then some memories from my last time in London.