Every author will tell you how incredible it is when readers bring your books to life. I jumped up and down on the sofa when I saw three girls dressed as Noelle from ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo’ for a school book event. Just brilliant! And there was more sofa-jumping when Harri photographed himself with a chainsaw and my book (which will make sense to those of you who’ve read the book and none at all to those of you who haven’t). Don’t try this at home

More recently, I had a big excited squeal when I saw the knitted-Louie my friend had had made for the launch of ‘Louie Let’s Loose: Unicorn in New York’

So I can’t begin to imagine it must feel to be JK Rowling, with an entire studio tour dedicated to the Harry Potter universe. And not just any old studio tour. This was the best fun EVER.

Fellow Girls Heart Books blogger, Lucy Strange, and I visited with my daughter last week and we’re still fizzing with excitement. So this blog post is the first of a two part Harry-Potter-love-in. Lucy Strange will write more next week, but for now my blog is about to turn into a bit of a studio tour photo album 🙂

All the best worlds have good entrances. And the Harry Potter studios are no exception. Doors, gateways, Gryffin-stuffed arches. Entry-tastic…

 

We didn’t have to guess what we’d see in the Mirror or Erised because we were already where we wanted to be … HARRY POTTER STUDIOS. So that’s what we saw, complete with a load of people taking selfies. And speaking of selfies, Lucy made me laugh by taking the greatest selfie of all time – Poor Dead Dobbie Selfie!

My daughter wasn’t particularly impressed when I told her she’d be moving into the understairs cupboard, but giggled when we suggested she stay in the Gryffindor Boys’ Bedroom.

And then, after three hours of fun and butterbeers that weren’t quite as tasty as we’d been hoping, it was sadly time to go home :(. After failing to get through Platform 9 ¾ we gave up and caught the bus to Watford Junction, fuelled by the power of Peppermint Frogs.

 

There is nothing more lovely than a book brought to life. In the words of JK Rowling:

The scars had not plagued Lucy and Rachel for 19 minutes. All was well.