Sam Jordison weighs in on the subject of what happens to place between books and reality. I felt just this way when I first visited Hogwarts. No ghosts, no giants. Just sallow, pasty children in knickered uniforms without a hint of magic or exceptional personality. You can beat them up easy as pie and they can’t change you into anything. Pffft. Nerds.

When you’re looking for the perfect match between literature and location, satisfaction is not always guaranteed. Places change after writers describe them, often for the worse, sometimes for the better (I’m going to Cannery Row next week and expect that things are going to be much more cheerful there than in Steinbeck’s day). And it’s part of the job for writers to use considerable poetic license when describing location. It’s foolish and naive to expect places to be exactly as they are in the books we love.

Full disclosure: Now, the police are claiming this wasn’t JK Rowling’s “Hogwarts”, per se, but rather the local playground. I, on the other hand, say that’s for the courts to decide.