I Wish I’d Written: Linda Chapman

Linda Chapman on a book whose characters stay with the reader…

There are many books I wish I had written but if I had to choose just one it would be Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I love the skilful combination of magic and real-life, the brilliantly realised world, the fact the writing never gets in the way of the story and that when you get to the end the characters stay with you and seem completely real. I can still remember when I first picked it up, not having any real expectations because it was early days before the series really took off, starting to read it and then being completely caught up and unable to put it down. As an author, to know that you have turned even one child into a reader is a great feeling, but to know that so many millions of readers of all ages and nationalities have read your book, have laughed, felt thrilled, gripped, excited, moved, cared passionately about your characters and wanted to read more of their adventures – well, I think it is an incredible achievement and I can only imagine how amazing it must feel. I think J K Rowling is a brilliant, utterly unpretentious writer and I am immensely grateful to her for the hours of pleasure all her books have given me – pleasure that my daughters are now just starting to share. It is wonderful to see them reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for themselves, too absorbed to look up when I call their names. I envy them the journey they have ahead as they follow the rest of Harry’s adventures and I look at the book in their hands and I think again, ‘oh yes, I wish I had written that’.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (978 0 7475 3274 3) by J K Rowling is published by Bloomsbury at £6.99. Linda Chapman’s latest book Loving Spirit (978 0 14 132832 4) is published by Puffin at £5.99.