It was immersive and extremely interesting. The walls are lined with fake books and the display cases are like windows looking out of the room and into the cases which contain the inspirations behind the magical classes. Each room is themed, with elements hanging from the ceiling making use of the height of the rooms. Each class has a large book, open to a page with the introductory text panel, short sweet and illustrated. So you step into the first class, potions, and it is just magical. Rowling’s own hand written notes and illustrations (she’s a brilliant artist), art by Jim Kay as well as a history of magic told through the collections of the British Library and other on loan items from the Science Museum, British Museum and The Museum of Witchcraft to name a few. The exhibition is divided into subjects studied at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, combining elements from J. Which as the story goes, were immensely popular. Thanks in part to this young legend, Harry Potter was given a yes for print of an initial run of 500 copies. I think it is possibly one of the best books an 8/9 year old could read’. Rowling submitted the first book to Bloomsbury as a publishing proposal it was taken home and given to one of the publishing team’s daughters, her review reads ‘The excitement in this book made me feel warm inside. My favourite part of this section was a hand written letter in pencil in an 8 year-old’s scrawl. This seems fairly accurate, any Harry Potter fans can vouch that we all hopped on board for the ride with the Harry Potter books.īooks are suspended from the ceiling, open as if their boards are flapping like birds wings. The exhibition celebrates 20 years since the first publication of Harry Potter, so needless to say it starts at the beginning, but instead the first section is called ‘The Journey’. So I will have to describe it a bit, to give an insight, but more importantly to remind myself of what it was like for future reference.

My only criticism of the exhibit comes in the form of my pet hate. But then again, exhibition visits are very personal, maybe I’m biased as a Harry Potter fan. It uncovered the world of magical history that inspired elements of J. Harry Potter, A History of Magic, was one of those special cases where I really just couldn’t fault it. This is very often not the fault of the team and designer who put it together, or the objects that have been selected, it merely boils down to personal taste. I find it incredibly rare to visit an exhibition and find it perfect.

History of magic british library