The Phenomenon

It was quite extraordinary to be at the pictures at midnight last night to find that it was packed.

Sessions every ten minutes (sometimes less) of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 the last of the series.

It occurs to me that its significance is not so much about the literature or the film as about the generations in attendance. Not many people my age like being up until the early hours any more, the young seem to relish it. The child in the photo (the youngest SC)  was with me and her bf of one month T. Both (like mostly everyone else present) had grown up with the phenomenon. Indeed S was probably not reading when the first book came out. She is now on the threshold of adulthood. Harry, Hermione, and Ron have made the same journey (Thank goodness Radcliffe's stilted acting has improved!!)

So there was a real sense of last hurrah. And we all got sort of dressed up. I all in black (with tuxedo jacket), S as a wild Bellatrix Lestrange and T ...well I don't quite know who he was but he had a funny little toothbrush moustache!!

There were death eaters, lots of male and female Harrys, and even some who appeared to have little or nothing to do with it all.

I am sort of glad it is all over...3D at the dead of night eight rows from the front is almost more than my vision and blood pressure can stand...

Film was rather good...a bit too like Lord of the Rings for its own good.  But there will be no more.

My perception is that JK Rowling got bored with the whole exercise and the books got less and less disciplined as time went on...the story is certainly not ight and you might struggle to understand it if you hadn't been immersed in the story from woe to go.

It has been a real phenomenon.....all over the world
Farewell Harry et al..