Fans celebrated the birthdays of JK Rowling and her most famous creation, Harry Potter.
The British author behind the massively successful fantasy franchise turned 53 on Tuesday while the fictional wizard would have been marking his 38th birthday.
Readers went on Twitter to send happy birthday messages to Rowling.
One tweeted: “I’m all emotional. Feels like yesterday Harry was 11, on his first train to Hogwarts and now he’s 38. Thank you J.K. Rowling for giving us a blessing in Harry Potter.”
Another said: “Happy 53rd Birthday, JK Rowling! Happy 38th Birthday, Harry Potter!”
And one wrote: “Reading the Harry Potter books has always been one of the few things that made me forget about all of my problems It’s helps me escape from my depression and escape in to a world that I feel so familiar with For that, I’ll be forever grateful… Happy Birthday @JK_Rowling.”
Rowling thanked fans for their birthday messages on Twitter.
She tweeted to her 14.3 million followers: “I’m a long way out of my usual time zone and have just woken up to hundreds of early birthday greetings! Thank you.”
As well as wishing the author a happy birthday, many fans were stunned to discover Harry’s age after working out he would now be nearing 40.
One joked: “Just realised it’s Harry Potter’s 38th birthday today. Perhaps it’s time to stop calling him the boy who lived and start calling him the man who approached middle age?”
Another tweeted: “Harry Potter is 38 years old. Can’t wait for the new book ‘Harry Potter and the midlife crisis’ which deals with his struggles in paying off his student loans.”
The first Harry Potter book, The Philosopher’s Stone, was released in 1997 and was followed by seven sequels, as well as blockbuster film adaptions.
Daniel Radcliffe, the British actor who plays the wizard in the film adaptions, is 29.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel