The Gryffindor Gazette

Twenty things you might not know about Harry Potter

by Wendy on February 18th, 2008

Here’s a fun list from VH1 of all places of twenty things you might not know about Harry Potter:

1. Joanne Rowling’s editors encouraged the author to change her nom de plume to J.K. Rowling so that young male readers wouldn’t be put off by a woman author.

2. Rowling first came up with the idea about a boy wizard attending a magical academy in 1990 while sitting in a stalled train on its way to London.

3. Boston duo Harry & the Potters have written an entire eponymous album about the books, with song titles like “Wizard Chess” and “Gryffindor Rocks.”

4. The unemployed Rowling wrote most of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone sitting in Nicolson’s cafe in Edinburgh, nursing an espresso for hours while her baby daughter slept in her stroller.

5. The English village of Cambourne has become a tourist attraction thanks to a road called “Quidditch Lane.” The word “Quidditch” was an old rural term for “ditch.”

6. Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter in the movies, is reported to be the U.K.’s third richest teenager behind Prince William and singer Charlotte Church.

7. Rowling had written two unpublished adult novels when the first Harry Potter book hit the best-seller lists in 1997. “I must remember to burn them before anyone reads them,” she said.

8. Pope John Paul II commended the Harry Potter books for their treatment of racism and genocide.

9. Steven Spielberg wanted to cast The Sixth Sense’s Haley Joel Osment as Harry Potter, but left the production of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when J.K. Rowling insisted on full cast approval.

10. Rupert Grint won his role after performing a rap about his character, Ronald Weasley.

11. In China, several fake Harry Potter sequels have been printed, with titles like Harry Potter and the Golden Turtle, Harry Potter and the Crystal Vase and Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon.

12. Since the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, a sign designating “Platform 9 ¾” has been erected in King’s Cross Station in London.

13. Comic book artist Brad Neely recorded an “alternative soundtrack” for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Screenings of the movie were held using his voiceover as “Wizard People, Dear Readers.”

14. Daniel Radcliffe’s favorite movie is 1957’s 12 Angry Men, with Henry Fonda.

15. Music fan Radcliffe has named Bloc Party, Blur, Brendan Benson, Hope of the States, Huey Lewis and the News, Jane’s Addiction, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse, Rage Against the Machine, Razorlight, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Stratovarius, The Clash, The Darkness, The Futureheads, The Libertines, The Music, The Pixies, The Sex Pistols, The Stereophonics, The Zutons, Tom Robinson, U2, and Zwan, among his favorite bands. The only two groups he is not fond of are the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The White Stripes. “The drumming puts me off every time,” he says.

16. Radcliffe and Emma Watson learned magic from magician Paul Kieve for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

17. Ian Brown of 1980s Britpop band The Stone Roses has a cameo in The Prisoner of Azkaban. You can see him sitting in the bar reading A Brief History of Time. Members of Radiohead are set to appear in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as the band The Weird Sisters.

18. Radcliffe suffered two ear infections following the underwater filming in The Goblet of Fire.

19. In England, motorists learned about the end of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince from a roadside banner put up by spoilers.

20. Rupert Grint is a keen golfer, and frequently hits the links with Harry Eden, the star of Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist.

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