A boy, a bit of magic, a baddie and a story as old as time of good overcoming evil. On the surface, J.K. Rowling’s tale of a rather geeky boy wizard who triumphs in the face of darkness, has a faint whiff of familiarity to it.

Never mind that, but the sight of a brick sized tome with the prospect of not just days but weeks of bedtime reading ahead, tends to make parents sigh and small people’s eyes roll.

Even the desperately dreary opening line of J.K. Rowling’s first Potter novel, the Philosopher’s Stone - “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” - offers little hint of a magical, and slightly addictive, journey ahead.

It’s one that spans those vital years from childhood to awkward adolescent - not just of the characters, but those young readers too. Once on board the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express, we’re taught subtle rules about the value of friendship, right from wrong, the joys of butter beer and near lethal acid pop sweets, and how perseverance, honesty and love are quite good things to have in your life.

Critics have sniffed at Rowling’s efforts, denigrating her writing style and accusing her of tired metaphors or suggesting she’s been just a little too inspired by the likes of Lord of the Rings and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. But then, they’re not wide eyed young people whose worlds revolve around school dramas and friends, who are fighting sleep and begging mum or dad to just read another chapter - even if it does involve man-eating spiders - before switching the lights off.

I suspect like many parents, I have now read Rowling’s Potter books at least twice - in my case with each of my two sons. Together we learned how to train a higgogriff and that Fluffy the near rabid three headed dog could be put to sleep by gentle music, that a patronus charm might save our lives and that life can throw up a few challenges but Dumbledore - or, failing that, someone else who is wise and loyal - will help sort things out.

The Potter books saw us from easy going days of primary school to the rather more turbulent start of secondary - the accompanying films and later video games - kept us going even longer in a fantasy world that careered from silly to scary, dark and dramatic with each passing paragraph.

Rowling’s books may not be in the league of Jane Austin or Shakespeare, but the tale of Harry, Hermione and Ron are now engraved in the DNA of an entire generation, no doubt to become a feature of bedroom routines for their own wide-eyed children.