The young medical student to whom I'd been talking was chilled nearly blue in her summer party frock, the well-travelled 20-year-old American to whom I'd been chatting about Spanish cultural mores looked almost as frozen in his light T-shirt. Only the Brownie leader -- 28 she said, so she'd got into Harry Potter at university "I haven't got an excuse" -- was sensibly wrapped up.
The police came -- in the huddles of four as they usually travel in Camden after dark -- and were probably needed when the 12-year-old near the head of the queue, emboldened perhaps by his large and largely adult gang, yelled "Muggles" at a passing group of hooded youths. I'm sure they understood - a measure of how the cultural phenomenon has penetrated far and wide.
There were several notable factors about the queue - the gender balance, 50-50 near enough. Who says boys won't read? And their age -- odd examples at the extremes, but mostly 20, plus or minus a few years -- these are the Harry Potter generation.
But there was diversity -- a complete Muslim family, surely, you'd think, buying books for the children -- the woman in black head scarf, the man in a religious skull cap, jumped into a car to leave as I reached the head of the queue; in front of me the huge hoop earrings that scream "council estate" dangled in the light. A serious-looking middle-aged woman in shiny heeled pumps -- surely a librarian, I thought -- waited just ahead.
All over London, all over Europe, all over the world, there have been queues like this, for a book. Isn't it a wonderful thing?
Article comments
1 - katie mcneill
It was wonderful. Here in the States the lines were just as long. I went to several of the book parties here in Oklahoma and had to fight my way through crowds of people to just to see what kind of things the different bookstores had going on. Costume contests, different ‘Harry Potter’ themed games, and stickers proclaiming Snape as friend or foe.
There was a huge age range. Young parents who had dressed their children (at various ages) as witches or wizards. Teenagers in their goth finest, the preppy kids sporting school jackets, and the every one in between. Not to mention all the adults from all different walks of life.
It was great that something like this could bring together all these different people.