Can Rowling break the mould?

No one wants to be type cast. Not really. Not even Danny Dyer likes being Danny Dyer anymore, and you know that he used to love being Danny Dyer. It’s a great way to make money of course, if we use the word ‘great’ with the assumption that this greatness entails swallowing every last bit of your pride, credibility and self-respect in one cold phlegmy lump. So why am I yammering on about Danny Dyer and phlegm? Well the benevolent and omnipotent God of the Harry Potter universe, J.K. Rowling is attempting to leave lickle Harry and friends behind and start out on a brave new path of an unspecified ‘adult novel’.

We have already seen this same problem of house hold Harry Potter names trying to break out of that multi-million pound mould that holds them so tightly. Daniel ‘the plank’ Radcliffe stars in The Woman in Black where he desperately avoids anything Potter related. If you haven’t seen it yet you have a terrifying two hours ahead of you where Daniel runs screaming around a house trying to get away from his Potter past. Everywhere he goes there’s a broomstick in a cupboard or a white owl on a windowsill or Ralph Fiennes sitting on the bog.

Hermione Granger got herself a deal to be the face of Burberry, but was controversially dropped because she was a mudblood and had an annoying face. Consequentially she received no points for Gryffindor and lost them the House Cup. Nice one you dick. Let’s not forget the Ginger one. He’s in an Ed Sheeran video being Ginger with another Ginger. Raising awareness that they do indeed have souls.

The difference between the actors and the author however is massive. It’s like the difference between God and the Saints. Yeah they get a fast track into heaven, but God built the bloody gaff! J.K. Rowling has made a tidy pile of galleons for herself with the Potter franchise – and good for her. For an author of children’s books to have a big enough fan-base on both sides of the Atlantic that she was able to seriously bargain with Warner Bros. about the film production, means that she got a whole bunch of kids across the world to read. In this modern world of social networking and games consoles, any author that captures the imaginations of children on such a massive scale deserves huge credit and deserves her financial award. Who knows what her new book will be like, but I wish her all the luck in the world.