Close encounters of the potter kind

Midnight July 16th 2005 some where in west London...

It's a balmy summer evening, a small group of enthusiasts have gathered outside a book store. They have spent two years waiting for this moment and they are a tiny part of a vast world wide community. Look around you one of these people is probably sitting near you at this very moment.

Harry potter and the half blood prince has arrived, J K Rowling's boy wizard is back for the sixth time and it is clear that we are not dealing with just another book, we are looking at a full-blooded cultural phenomenon. No other book can inspire readers to queue up at midnight. Would any one wait in line for the latest Dan Brown?

The Harry Potter world has gone way beyond the actual books. It doesn't matter whether they get good reviews or not, it probably doesn't matter whether they are actually any good or not, the books sell in such vast numbers because they are a real part of people's lives. Working at midnight in a high street retailer on Harry Day I was struck by the affection readers have for the series. Buying the book wasn't just purchasing, it was akin to being reunited with an old friend. New Yorkers once waited for the next installment from Dickens in the same way a large part of the world waits for the next Potter.

Rowling is head of Potter Plc readers are stake holders, younger readers have a world of muggles and magic, Harry and chums are a reassuring presence in a tough world. But try as I might I can't be too cynical about Potterworld, it is great that kids are excited about a book, it's fantastic that a generation is at least reading and enjoying the experience.

But Potter is a book for kids. While it is charming to see children enjoy the tales, it is disturbing to see an adult reading the same book. Grown ups reading Potter are in denial: reading the books is a comfort blanket, it's the literary equivalent of thumb sucking something that you should grow out of by the time you're old enough not to believe in magic.

Harry Potter like Father Christmas is a magical figure who brings cheer to the kids, but we all grow up and we can't have the world as it once was. I wouldn't trust an adult who believed in Santa Claus and I'm not sure about the mental state of adult Potter fans.