Thank you for all of those magical, spellbinding books

Please allow me to add to the hooha surrounding the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first Harry Potter book by saying a heartfelt thank you to JK Rowling on behalf of all the parents whose children grew up alongside the boy wizard.

We took our precocious fouryear-old to see her first Harry Potter film when everyone said she was far too young. She was not only unafraid, she was transfixed and, thereafter, a diehard fan.

So, thank you for providing us with the only acceptable fictional role model for young girls, in the form of Hermione – a fearless adventure-lover who nonetheless always did her homework.

Thank you for making it OK for young girls to dress up as boy wizards and play equally with boys in the playground.

Thank you for making reading enormous books a cool pastime for young people. They couldn’t wait to get their hands on the new books as they were published and I can’t think of any other author who has had that effect.

Thank you for giving parents who may have been struggling to communicate with their children the perfect way in: “What do you think Harry/Hermione/Ron would say about that?”

Thank you for giving the lazier parents among us the perfect, easy costumes to kit out our children in for fancy dress parties or World Book Day at school. (Black cape/ wand for Harry or cords and stripy jumper for Hermione.)

Thank you for giving us the stories for films that families can rewatch, again and again, on rainy days.

Thank you for writing in such a way that adults enjoyed the books too, thereby making it perfectly acceptable for even the most grown-up teenagers to admit their continued allegiance to Harry Potter.