Books / Harry Potter
Celebrating Bristol’s connections to Harry Potter
Since the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on June 26 1997, there have been more than 500 million copies have been sold worldwide.
It is estimated that only the Qur’an, Bible and Mao’s Little Red Book have sold more copies than the Harry Potter books, which have been translated into more than 70 languages including Latin.
Author JK Rowling was born in Yate, on the outskirts of Bristol, and the local links are certainly present in the series if you look hard enough.
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For example, the Dursley family, with whom Harry spends a miserable early life before discovering he is a wizard, were named after the Gloucestershire town of Dursley.
In 2016, a sign was discovered outside of Bristol Children’s Hospital, claiming that the colourful hoops sculpture was in fact made for the 198 Quidditch World Cup. The sign was put in place in 2014 by Cormac Seachoy who was diagnosed with cancer and died in the same year, aged 27.
Sticking with the Quidditch theme, the Brizzlepuffs at Bristol University have brought Bristol even further into the wizarding world of Harry Potter by creating their own Quidditch team and being part of the UK’s first ever league.
Celebrate your favourite wizard in style at Stanfords on Corn Street with a Harry Potter Trivia quiz night on Wednesday, July 26 from 6pm. For more information and tickets, visit www.stanfords.co.uk/event-20-years-of-harry-potter-quiz-night
Read more: Bookshop owner Tweets entire Harry Potter to Piers Morgan
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