1. Harry Potter influences and analogues
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Writer J. K. Rowling cites several writers as influences in her creation of her bestselling Harry Potter series.
Writers, journalists and critics have noted that the books also have a number of analogues; a wide range of
literature, both classical and modern, which Rowling has not openly cited as influences.
This article is divided into three sections. The first section lists those authors and books which Rowling has
suggested as possible influences on Harry Potter. The second section deals with those books which Rowling
has cited as favourites without mentioning possible influences. The third section deals with those analogues
which Rowling has not cited either as influences or as favourites but which others have claimed bear
comparison with Harry Potter.
[edit]Influences
Rowling has never openly credited any single author with inspiration, saying, "I haven't got the faintest idea
where my ideas come from, or how my imagination works. I'm just grateful that it does, because it gives me
more entertainment than it gives anyone else."[1] However, she has mentioned a number of favourite authors as
probable influences in her creation of Harry Potter. The works are listed roughly in order of publication.
[edit]British folklore and mythology
Rowling has said, "I've taken horrible liberties with folklore and mythology, but I'm quite unashamed about that,
because British folklore and British mythology is a totally bastard mythology. You know, we've been invaded by
people, we've appropriated their gods, we've taken their mythical creatures, and we've soldered them all
together to make, what I would say, is one of the richest folklores in the world, because it's so varied. So I feel
no compunction about borrowing from that freely, but adding a few things of my own."[2]
[edit]The Iliad
When an interviewer said that saving Cedric's body resembled the Iliad and the actions of Hector, Achilles,
and Patroclus, Rowling said, "That's where it came from. That really, really, really moved me when I read that
when I was 19. The idea of the desecration of a body, a very ancient idea... I was thinking of that when Harry
saved Cedric's body."[3]
[edit]The Bible
A number of commentators have drawn attention to the Biblical themes and references in her final Harry
Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In an August 2007 issue of Newsweek, Lisa Miller
commented that Harry dies and then comes back to life to save humankind, like Christ. She points out the title

2. of the chapter in which this occurs—"King's Cross"—a possible allusion to Christ's cross. Also, she outlines the
scene in which Harry is temporarily dead, pointing out that it places Harry in a very heaven-like setting where
he talks to a father figure "whose supernatural powers are accompanied by a profound message of
love."[4] Jeffrey Weiss adds, in the Dallas Morning News, that the biblical quotation "And the last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death", (I Corinthians 15:26), featured on the tombstones of Harry's parents, refers to
Christ's resurrection.[5] The quotation on Dumbledore's family tomb, "Where your treasure is, your heart will be
also", is from Matthew 6:21, and refers to knowing which things in life are of true value.[6] "They're very British
books", Rowling revealed to an Open Book conference in October 2007, "So on a very practical note Harry was
going to find biblical quotations on tombstones, [but] I think those two particular quotations he finds on the
tombstones at Godric's Hollow, they (...) almost epitomise the whole series."[7]
[edit]The Pardoner's Tale
In a July 2007 webchat hosted by her publisher Bloomsbury, Rowling stated that The Pardoner's
Tale of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was an inspiration for a folktale retold by Xenophilius
Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.[8] In the tale, three brothers outwit Death by magicking a
bridge to cross a dangerous river. Death, angry at being cheated, offers to give them three gifts, the Deathly
Hallows, as a reward for evading him. The first two die as a result of the gifts granted to them, but the third
uses his gift wisely and dies in his bed an old man. In The Pardoner's Tale, three rogues are told that if they
look under a tree, they can find a means to defeat Death. Instead they find gold, and, overcome with greed,
eventually kill each other to possess it.[9]
[edit]Macbeth
Rowling has cited Shakespeare's Macbeth as an influence. In an interview with The Leaky
Cauldron and MuggleNet, when asked, "What if [Voldemort] never heard the prophecy?", she said, "It's the
"Macbeth" idea. I absolutely adore "Macbeth." It is possibly my favourite Shakespeare play. And that's the
question isn't it? If Macbeth hadn't met the witches, would he have killed Duncan? Would any of it have
happened? Is it fated or did he make it happen? I believe he made it happen."[10] On her website, she referred
to Macbeth again in discussing the prophecy: "the prophecy (like the one the witches make to Macbeth, if
anyone has read the play of the same name) becomes the catalyst for a situation that would never have
occurred if it had not been made."[11]
[edit]Emma
Rowling cites Jane Austen as her favourite author and a major influence. "My attitude to Jane Austen is
accurately summed up by that wonderful line from Cold Comfort Farm: 'One of the disadvantages of almost
universal education was that all kinds of people gained a familiarity with one's favourite books. It gave one a
curious feeling; like seeing a drunken stranger wrapped in one's dressing gown.'"[1]The Harry Potter series is

3. known for its twist endings, and Rowling has stated that, "I have never set up a surprise ending in a Harry
Potter book without knowing I can never, and will never, do it anywhere near as well as Austen did in Emma."[1]
[edit]The Story of the Treasure Seekers
Rowling frequently mentions E. Nesbit in interview, citing her "very real" child characters.[12] In 2000, she said,
"I think I identify with E Nesbit more than any other writer", and described Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure
Seekers' as, "Exhibit A for prohibition of all children's literature by anyone who cannot remember exactly how it
felt to be a child."[1]
[edit]The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows byKenneth Grahame
In a 2007 reading for students in New Orleans, Rowling said that the first book to inspire her was Kenneth
Grahame's children's fantasy The Wind in the Willows, read to her when she had the measles at age 4.[13]
[edit]Dorothy L. Sayers
Rowling has also cited the work of Christian essayist and mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers as an influence on
her work, saying "There's a theory — this applies to detective novels, and then Harry, which is not really a
detective novel, but it feels like one sometimes — that you should not have romantic intrigue in a detective
book. Dorothy L. Sayers, who is queen of the genre said — and then broke her own rule, but said — that there
is no place for romance in a detective story except that it can be useful to camouflage other people's motives.
That's true; it is a very useful trick. I've used that on Percy and I've used that to a degree on Tonks in this book,
as a red herring. But having said that, I disagree inasmuch as mine are very character-driven books, and it's so
important, therefore, that we see these characters fall in love, which is a necessary part of life."[14]

4. [edit]The Chronicles of Narnia
Rowling has said she was a fan of the works of C. S. Lewis as a child, and cites the influence of
his Narnia chronicles on her work: "I found myself thinking about the wardrobe route to Narnia when Harry is
told he has to hurl himself at a barrier in Kings Cross Station - it dissolves and he's on platform Nine and Three-
Quarters, and there's the train for Hogwarts."[15]
She is, however, at pains to stress the differences between Narnia and her world: "Narnia is literally a different
world", she says, "whereas in the Harry books you go into a world within a world that you can see if you happen
to belong. A lot of the humour comes from collisions between the magic and the everyday worlds. Generally
there isn't much humour in the Narnia books, although I adored them when I was a child. I got so caught up I
didn't think CS Lewis was especially preachy. Reading them now I find that his subliminal message isn't very
subliminal."[15] New York Times writer Charles McGrath notes the similarity betweenDudley Dursley, the
obnoxious son of Harry's neglectful guardians, and Eustace Scrubb, the spoiled brat who torments the main
characters until converted by Aslan.[16]
[edit]The Little White Horse
In an interview in The Scotsman in 2002, Rowling described Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse as
having, "perhaps more than any other book . . . a direct influence on the Harry Potter books. The author always
included details of what her characters were eating and I remember liking that. You may have noticed that I
always list the food being eaten at Hogwarts."[17] Rowling said in O that "Goudge was the only [author] whose
influence I was conscious of. She always described exactly what the children were eating, and I really liked
knowing what they had in their sandwiches."[18]
[edit]The Sword in the Stone
Rowling also cites the work of T. H. White, a grammar school teacher, and the author of the well-known
children's classic saga, The Once and Future King, which tells the story of King Arthur of Britain, from
childhood to grave. Perhaps the best-known book from this saga is The Sword in the Stone (the first book)
which was made into an animated movie by Disney Studios. Arthur (called Wart) is a small scruffy-haired
orphan, who meets the wizard Merlin (who has an owl, Archimedes, and acts, much like Dumbledore, in the
manner of an "absent-minded professor"[19]) who takes him to a castle to educate him. As writer Phyllis Morris
notes, "The parallels between Dumbledore and Merlin do not end with the protection of the hero in danger . . .
In addition to both characters sporting long, flowing beards (and blue eyes, according to T.H. White), Merlin
was King Arthur's mentor and guide, as Dumbledore has been Harry's guide and mentor."[20] Rowling describes
Wart as "Harry's spiritual ancestor."[21]
[edit]Manxmouse

5. Rowling is also a fan of Paul Gallico, "especially Manxmouse. That's a great book. Gallico manages the fine
line between magic and reality so skilfully, to the point where the most fantastic events feel plausible." [15]
[edit]Jessica Mitford
In the Scotsman interview, Rowling described civil rights activist Jessica Mitford as "my most influential writer",
saying, "I love the way she never outgrew some of her adolescent traits, remaining true to her politics - she was
a self-taught socialist - throughout her life."[17] In a review of Decca—The letters of Jessica Mitford, she went
further saying, "Jessica Mitford has been my heroine since I was 14 years old, when I overheard my formidable
great-aunt discussing how Mitford had run away at the age of 19 to fight with the Reds in the Spanish Civil
War", and claims what inspired her about Mitford was that she was "incurably and instinctively rebellious,
brave, adventurous, funny and irreverent, she liked nothing better than a good fight, preferably against a
pompous and hypocritical target."[22]
[edit]Other favourites
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
In 1999, while Rowling was on a tour of the United States, a bookseller handed her a copy of I Capture the
Castle by Dodie Smith, saying she would love it. The book became one of her all time favourites. Rowling says
that, "it is the voice of the narrator, in this case 17-year- old Cassandra Mortmain, which makes a masterpiece
out of an old plot."[1][23]

6. Also in 1999, Rowling said in interview that she was great fan of Grimble, by Clement Freud, saying, "Grimble
is one of funniest books I've ever read, and Grimble himself, who is a small boy, is a fabulous character. I'd
love to see a Grimble film. As far as I know, these last two fine pieces of literature are out of print, so if any
publishers ever read this, could you please dust them off and put them back in print so other people can read
them?"[24]
On a number of occasions, Rowling has cited her admiration for French novelist Colette.[25]
Rowling said that the death of Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, and the novel's final
line, "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have
ever known", had a profound impact on her.[26]
In a 2000 interview with BBC Radio 4, Rowling revealed a deep love of Vladimir Nabokov's controversial
book Lolita, saying, "There just isn't enough time to discuss how a plot that could have been the most worthless
pornography becomes, in Nabokov's hands, a great and tragic love story, and I could exhaust my reservoir of
superlatives trying to describe the quality of the writing."[27]
In an interview with O: The Oprah Magazine, Rowling described Irish author Roddy Doyle as her favourite living
writer, saying, "I love all his books. I often talk about him and Jane Austen in the same breath. I think people
are slightly mystified by that because superficially they're such different writers. But they both have a very
unsentimental approach to human nature. They can be profoundly moving without ever becoming mawkish."[28]
Many of Rowling's named favorites decorate the links section of her personal webpage. The section is
designed to look like a bookcase, and includes I Capture the Castle, The Little White Horse and Manxmouse,
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma, a book of fairy tales by E. Nesbit, The
Commitments and The Van by Roddy Doyle, two books by Dorothy L. Sayers and a book by Katherine
Mansfield.[29]
In January 2006, Rowling was asked by the Royal Society of Literature to nominate her top ten books every
child should read. Included in her list wereWuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory by Roald Dahl, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, David Copperfield by Charles
Dickens, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Animal Farm by George
Orwell, The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter, The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger and Catch-
22 by Joseph Heller.[30]
[edit]Analogues
There are a number of authors to which Rowling has been repeatedly compared in the media. Some of these
she has herself mentioned, others have been mentioned by Internet sites, journalists, critics or other authors.
The works are listed roughly in order of publication.

7. [edit]The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
John Granger sees Chamber of Secrets as similar to a morality play like John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.
He describes the climax, where Harry descends to the Chamber of Secrets to rescue Ginny Weasley as "the
clearest Christian allegory of salvation history since Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. ... Using
only traditional symbols, from the ‘Ancient of Days’ figure as God the Father to the satanic serpent and Christ-
like phoenix (‘the Resurrection Bird’), the drama takes us from the fall to eternal life without a hitch." [31]
[edit]Wuthering Heights
In 2006, Rowling recommended Emily Brontë's Gothic post-Romantic Wuthering Heights as number one of the
top ten books every child should read. In her essay, "To Sir With Love" in the book Mapping the World of Harry
Potter, Joyce Millman suggests that Severus Snape, Harry Potter's morally ambiguous potions master, is
drawn from a tradition of Byronic heroes such as Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff[32] and that chapter two of Harry
Potter and the Half Blood Prince is reminiscent of the opening of Wuthering Heights when Heathcliff is coldly
introduced and asks his servant Joseph to bring up wine for him and Lockwood. Snape commands the almost
identical line to his servant Wormtail, with Snape described similarly to how Emily Brontë described Heathcliff.
[edit]Tom Brown's Schooldays

8. The Harry Potter series draws upon a long tradition of boarding school-set children's literature in English.
This school story genre originated in the Victorian era with Tom Brown's Schooldays, by Thomas Hughes. Tom
Brown's Schooldays laid down a basic structure which has been widely imitated, for example inAnthony
Buckeridge's 1950s Jennings books.[33]
Both Tom Brown's Schooldays and Harry Potter involve an average eleven-year old, better at sport than
academic study, who is sent to boarding school. Upon arrival, the boy gains a best friend (In Tom's case, East,
in Harry's case, Ron Weasley) who helps him adjust to the new environment. They are set upon by an arrogant
bully — in Tom Brown's case, Flashman, in Harry's case Draco Malfoy. Stephen Fry, who both narrates the
British audio adaptations of the Harry Potter novels and has starred in a screen adaptation of Tom Brown, has
commented many times about the similarities between the two books. "Harry Potter - a boy who arrives in this
strange school to board for the first time and makes good, solid friends and also enemies who use bullying and
unfair tactics", notes Fry, "then is ambiguous about whether or not he is going to be good or bad. His pluck and
his endeavour, loyalty, good nature and bravery are the things that carry him through - and that is the story of
Tom Brown's Schooldays".[34]
[edit]The Lord of the Rings
Fans of author J. R. R. Tolkien have drawn attention to the similarities between his novel The Lord of the
Rings and the Harry Potter series; specifically Tolkien's Wormtongue and Rowling's Wormtail,
Tolkien's Shelob and Rowling's Aragog, Tolkien's Nazgûl and Rowling's Dementors, Old Man Willow and the
Whomping Willow and the similarities between both authors' antagonists, Tolkien's Dark Lord Sauron and
Rowling's Lord Voldemort (both of whom are sometimes within their respective continuities unnamed due to
intense fear surrounding their names; both often referred to as 'The Dark Lord'; and both of whom are, during
the time when the main action takes place, seeking to recover their lost power after having been considered
dead or at least no longer a threat).[35] Several reviews ofHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows noted that the
locket used as a horcrux by Voldemort bore comparison to Tolkien's One Ring, as it negatively affects the
personality of the wearer.[36] Rowling maintains that she hadn't read The Hobbit until after she completed the
first Harry Potter novel (though she had read The Lord of the Rings as a teenager) and that any similarities
between her books and Tolkien's are "Fairly superficial. Tolkien created a whole new mythology, which I would
never claim to have done. On the other hand, I think I have better jokes."[37] Tolkienian scholar Tom
Shippeyhas maintained that "no modern writer of epic fantasy has managed to escape the mark of Tolkien, no
matter how hard many of them have tried".[38]
[edit]Roald Dahl
Many have drawn attention to the similarities between Rowling's works and those of Roald Dahl, particularly in
the depiction of the Dursley family, which echoes the nightmarish guardians seen in many of Dahl's books,
such as the Wormwoods from Matilda, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker from James and the Giant Peach, and

9. Grandma from George's Marvellous Medicine.[39] Rowling acknowledges that there are similarities, but believes
that at a deeper level, her works are different from those of Dahl; in her words, more "moral".[40]
[edit]X-Men
The Marvel Comics superhero team the X-Men, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, are similar
to Harry Potter in their examination of prejudice and intolerance. Comic book historian Michael Mallory
examined the original premise of the comic, in which teenage mutants study under Professor X to learn how to
control their abilities, safe from fearful Homo sapiens, and also battle less benign mutants like Magneto. He
argued, "Think about [the comic] clad in traditional British university robes and pointy hats, castles and trains,
and the image that springs to mind is Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizard[ry], with Dumbledore,
Voldemort and the class struggle between wizards and muggles." He acknowledged that while the X-Men was
for the longest time "a phenomenon that was largely contained in the realm of comic book readers as opposed
to the wider public [such as Rowling]", he argued "nothing exists in a vacuum, least of all popular culture. Just
as the creators of X-Menconsciously or unconsciously tapped into the creative ether of their time for inspiration,
so has the X-Men phenomenon had an effect on the books and films that has since followed."[41]
[edit]The Chronicles of Prydain
Lloyd Alexander's five-volume Prydain Chronicles, begun in 1964 with The Book of Three and concluding in
1968 with "The High King", features a young protagonist, an assistant pig keeper named Taran, who wishes to
be a great hero in a world drawn from Welsh mythology. Entertainment Weekly cited Lloyd Alexander as a
possible influence on Rowling when it named her its 2007 Entertainer of the Year.[42] When Alexander died in
2007, his obituary in New York Magazine drew many comparisons between Harry Potter and Prydain and said
that "The High King is everything we desperately hope Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be."[43]
[edit]The Dark Is Rising
Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising sequence (which commenced with Over Sea, Under Stone in 1965 and now
more commonly bound in a single volume) have been compared to the Harry Potter series. The second novel,
also called The Dark Is Rising, features a young boy named Will Stanton who discovers on his eleventh
birthday that he is in fact imbued with magical power; in Will's case, that he is the last of the Old Ones, beings
empowered by the Light to battle the Dark. The books open in much the same way, with Will finding that people
are telling him strange things and that animals run from him.[44] John Hodge, who wrote the screenplay for the
film adaptation of The Dark Is Rising, made substantial changes to the novel's plot and tone to differentiate it
from Harry Potter.[45]
[edit]A Wizard of Earthsea
The basic premise of Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), in which a boy with unusual aptitude for
magic is recognised, and sent to a special school for wizards, resembles that of Harry Potter.[46] Le Guin has

10. claimed that she doesn't feel Rowling "ripped her off", but that she felt that Rowling's books were overpraised
for supposed originality, and that Rowling "could have been more gracious about her predecessors. My
incredulity was at the critics who found the first book wonderfully original. She has many virtues, but originality
isn't one of them. That hurt."[47]
[edit]The Worst Witch
Many critics have noted that Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch series (first published in 1974), is set in a school for
girls, "Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches", remarkably reminiscent of Hogwarts.[48][49]The story concerns an
awkward pupil at a boarding school for witches, who faces a scheming rival student. Her professors include a
kindly and elderly headmistress and a bullying, raven-haired potions teacher.[50] Murphy has commented on her
frustration at constant comparisons between her work and Harry Potter: "It's irritating … everyone asks the
same question and I even get children writing to ask me whether I mind about the Hogwarts school of witchcraft
and pointing out similarities. Even worse are reviewers who come across my books, or see the TV series, and,
without taking the trouble to find out that it's now over quarter of a century since I wrote my first book, make
pointed remarks about "clever timing" – or say things like "the Worst Witch stories are not a million miles from J
K Rowling's books". The implications are really quite insulting!"[51]
[edit]Charmed Life
In Diana Wynne Jones' Charmed Life (1977), two orphaned children receive magical education while living in a
castle. The setting is a world resembling early 1900s Britain, where magic is commonplace. Diana Wynne
Jones has stated in answer to a question on her webpage: "I think Ms Rowling did get quite a few of her ideas
from my books - though I have never met her, so I have never been able to ask her. My books were written
many years before the Harry Potter books (Charmed Life was first published in 1977), so any similarities
probably come from what she herself read as a child. Once a book is published, out in the world, it is sort of
common property, for people to take ideas from and use, and I think this is what happened to my books." [52]
[edit]Discworld
Before the arrival of J. K. Rowling, Britain's bestselling author was comic fantasy writer Terry Pratchett.
His Discworld books, beginning with The Colour of Magic in 1983, satirise and parody commonfantasy
literature conventions. Pratchett is repeatedly asked if he "got" his idea for his magic college, the Unseen
University, from Harry Potter's Hogwarts, or if the young wizard Ponder Stibbons, who has dark hair and
glasses, was inspired by Harry Potter. Both in fact predate Rowling's work by several years; Pratchett jokingly
claims that yes he did steal them, though "I of course used a time machine."[53] The BBC and other British news
agencies have emphasised a supposed rivalry between Pratchett and Rowling,[54] but Pratchett has said on
record that, while he doesn't put Rowling on a pedestal, he doesn't consider her a bad writer, nor does he envy
her success.[55] Claims of rivalry were due to a letter he wrote to The Sunday Times, about an article published
declaring that fantasy "looks backward to an idealised, romanticised, pseudofeudal world, where knights and

11. ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves".[56] Actually, he was protesting the ineptitude of journalists in that genre,
many of whom did not research their work and, in this case, contradicted themselves in the same article. [57]
[edit]Ender's Game
Science fiction author Orson Scott Card, in a fierce editorial in response to Rowling's copyright lawsuit against
the Harry Potter Lexicon, claimed that her assertion that she had had her "words stolen" was rendered moot by
the fact that he could draw numerous comparisons between her books and his own 1985 novel Ender's Game;
in his words, "A young kid growing up in an oppressive family situation suddenly learns that he is one of a
special class of children with special abilities, who are to be educated in a remote training facility where student
life is dominated by an intense game played by teams flying in midair, at which this kid turns out to be
exceptionally talented and a natural leader. He trains other kids in unauthorised extra sessions, which enrages
his enemies, who attack him with the intention of killing him; but he is protected by his loyal, brilliant friends and
gains strength from the love of some of his family members. He is given special guidance by an older man of
legendary accomplishments who previously kept the enemy at bay. He goes on to become the crucial figure in
a struggle against an unseen enemy who threatens the whole world."[58]
[edit]Young Sherlock Holmes
Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter film adaptations, has cited the 1985 film Young
Sherlock Holmes, which he wrote, as an influence in his direction for those films. "That was sort of a
predecessor to this movie, in a sense", he told the BBC in 2001, "It was about two young boys and a girl in a
British boarding school who had to fight a supernatural force."[59] Scenes from Young Sherlock Holmes were
subsequently used to cast the first Harry Potter film.[60] On 3 January 2010, Irish journalist Declan
Lynch (writing in The Sunday Independent) stated that "there's more than a hint of young Sherlock evident in
Harry".[61]
[edit]Troll
The 1986 Charles Band-produced low-budget horror/fantasy film Troll, directed by John Carl Buechler and
starring Noah Hathaway, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Sonny Bono, features a character named "Harry Potter Jr." In
an interview with M. J. Simpson, Band claimed, "I've heard that J. K. Rowling has acknowledged that maybe
she saw this low-budget movie and perhaps it inspired her."[62] However, a spokesman for Rowling, responding
to the rumors of a planned remake of the film, has denied that Rowling ever saw it before writing her
book.[63] Rowling has said on record multiple times that the name "Harry Potter" was derived in part from a
childhood friend, Ian Potter, and in part from her favourite male name, Harry.[64] On 13 April 2008, The Mail on
Sunday wrote a news article claiming that Warner Bros. had begun a legal action against Buechler; however,
the story was denied and lawyers for Rowling demanded the article be removed.[65]

12. On 14 April 2008 John Buechler's partner in the Troll remake, Peter Davy, said about Harry Potter, "In John's
opinion, he created the first Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling says the idea just came to her. John doesn't think so.
There are a lot of similarities between the theme of her books and the original Troll. John was shocked when
she came out with Harry Potter."[66]
[edit]Groosham Grange
Groosham Grange (first published in 1988), a novel by best-selling British author Anthony Horowitz has been
cited for its similarities with Harry Potter; the plot revolves around David Eliot, a young teenager mistreated by
his parents who receive an unexpected call from an isolated boarding school, Groosham Grange, which
reveals itself as a school for wizards and witches. Both books feature a teacher who is a ghost, a werewolf
character named after the French word for "wolf" (Lupin/Leloup), and passage to the school via railway
train.[67] Horowitz, however, while acknowledging the similarities, just thanked Rowling for her contribution to
the development of the young adult fiction in the UK.[68]
[edit]The Books of Magic
Fans of the comic book series The Books of Magic, by Neil Gaiman (first published in 1990 by DC Comics)
have cited similarities to the Harry Potter story. These include a dark-haired English boy with glasses,
named Timothy Hunter, who on his twelfth birthday discovers his potential as the most powerful wizard of the
age upon being approached by magic-wielding individuals, the first of whom makes him a gift of a pet owl.
Similarities led the British tabloid paper the Daily Mirror to claim Gaiman had made accusations of plagiarism
against Rowling, which he went on the record denying, saying the similarities were either coincidence, or drawn
from the same fantasy archetypes. "I thought we were both just stealing from T.H. White", he said in an
interview, "very straightforward."[69] Dylan Horrocks, writer of the Books of Magic spin-off Hunter: The Age of
Magic, has said they should be considered as similar works in the same genre and that both have parallels with
earlier schoolboy wizards, like the 2000 AD character Luke Kirby.[70]
[edit]Spellcasting series
The text adventure game Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All The Girls (1990) is the first installment of
the Spellcasting series created by Steve Meretzky during his time at Legend Entertainment. All the three
games in the series tell the story of young Ernie Eaglebeak, a bespectacled student at the prestigious Sorcerer
University, as he progresses through his studies, learning the arcanes of magic, taking part in student life,
occasionally saving the world as he knows it. Each separate game takes place during consecutive school years
as well, much like the Harry Potter books.[71]
[edit]Wizard's Hall
In 1991, the author Jane Yolen released a book called Wizard's Hall, to which the Harry Potter series bears a
resemblance. The main protagonist, Henry (also called Thornmallow), is a young boy who joins a magical

13. school for young wizards.[72] At the school "he must fulfill an ancient prophecy and help overthrow a powerful,
evil wizard."[73] Yolen has been very critical of Rowling's work, and has stated publicly that she believes Rowling
stole her ideas. In an interview with the magazine Newsweek, Yolen said, "I always tell people that if Ms.
Rowling would like to cut me a very large cheque, I would cash it."[74]
[edit]The Secret of Platform 13
Eva Ibbotson's The Secret of Platform 13 (first published in 1994) features a gateway to a magical world
located on an underground railway platform. The protagonist belongs to the magical world but is raised in our
world by a rich family who neglect him and treat him as a servant, while their fat and unpleasant biological son
is pampered and spoiled. Amanda Craig is a journalist who has written about the similarities: "Ibbotson would
seem to have at least as good a case for claiming plagiarism as the American author currently suing J. K.
Rowling [i. e Nancy Stouffer], but unlike her, Ibbotson says she would 'like to shake her by the hand. I think we
all borrow from each other as writers.'"[75]