The Unauthorised Harry Potter Companion

by Colin Duriez

Colin Duriez's book gives an integrated picture of the whole series, showing J.K. Rowling's worldview and spirituality, the themes and literary features of her books, and how she upholds the moral virtues and values championed by most classic children's authors, such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, while including values of inclusiveness and dealing with loss that are special to her and which speak clearly to the issues that concern us nowadays. There have been dozens of books on the Potter phenomenon, but 'The Unauthorised Harry Potter Companion' is the first to take the works seriously as modern classics and place them not only in the tradition of children's literature but in the broader tradition of western literature and the place of magic in our world view.

Genres: Harry Potter, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 22, 2007

About the author

Colin Duriez is an English writer and scholar best known for his work on the Inklings, the literary circle that included C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. Born in Derbyshire in 1947, he moved to Leicester in 1983 to work as a commissioning editor for the publisher IVP. Over the years he has combined editorial work with teaching, and in 2002 he established his own business, InWriting, in Keswick, Cumbria, providing writing and editorial services as well as book acquisition for publishers.
Winner of the Clyde S. Kilby Award in 1994 for his research on the Inklings, Duriez has been praised as one of the most valuable contemporary scholars on Lewis. His numerous books explore the lives, friendships, and imaginative worlds of Lewis and Tolkien, including Bedeviled: Lewis, Tolkien, and the Shadow of Evil, The Oxford Inklings, and Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship. His work has been lauded for accessibility, scholarly insight, and fresh perspectives.
Duriez has also appeared in television documentaries such as A Quest for Meaning – Myth, Imagination & Faith in the Literature of J. R. R. Tolkien & C. S. Lewis. He lives in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.

Reviews

[jessica ☾]

The majority of this is stuff you’d already know if you’re familiar with the Harry Potter series, but I think this guide would be perfect for someone brand new to the books!

[Bobby]

This gets interesting at over half way through, and before that is simply a recounting of everything we know and love about Harry Potter.