Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (by JK Rowling)

This year, as well as many other books, I’m gradually reading my way through JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ series of books. I’ve just finished the second one, ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’. It’s the fourth time I have read this book in less than twenty years, but I appreciate it every time.

The book opens, as the first one did, with Harry at home with his Dursley relatives. They are caricatures of unpleasant people: greedy, selfish, and vehemently against anything unusual or ‘abnor...