More than Writers

  I’ve just reread the first three Harry Potter books. I had forgotten how good they are, though there’s a confrontation scene just before the denouement in no. 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban , that consists of involved arguments about who betrayed who. It’s far too long drawn out, especially with Ron Weasly having to endure it with a broken leg. This is possibly an omen of things to come in the series. Am I going to reread any more? I don’t know. If you look at the Potter series on the shelf it’s immediately noticeable that the fourth in the series (as well as its successors) is twice as fat as any of the first three. A check on the word count confirms this: over 600 pages in The Goblet of Fire — over 750 in Order of the Phoenix — compared with only just over 300 in Azkaban . I can’t remember the last four books very well, but have a dim memory that they involve incredibly complicated and long winded unravelling at the end, however exciting the main parts are. I also remember that G...