For anyone who doesn't know already, Harry Potter is my all time favourite series!! It's a series that kick-started my reading and a series that will always be close to my heart! I really can't believe it's been 15 years, time really does fly. I am so excited to share with you some fascinating facts & some exciting news about how to enter the UK's biggest Harry Potter fan competition! What is your favourite Harry Potter moment/book?
Celebrating 15 years of Harry Potter magic Philosopher facts!
Fifteen fascinating facts about the first Harry Potter novel
1. The Signature edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is 1.5cm thick. A stack of 9000 copies would be as high as the London Eye.
2. A stack of 1 million copies would be 15,000 metres tall which is almost twice the height of Mount Everest!
3. The Signature edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is 19.7cm long. If you laid all the copies sold throughout the world end to end they would stretch further than the distance from London to Sydney.
4. The new Olympic stadium has a seating capacity of 80,000. You would be able to fill the stadium 1,125 times if you were to give everyone seated one copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone from the amount sold worldwide.
5. There are 223 pages in the Signature edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. If you were to read a page a day for fifteen years you would be able to read the entire novel 24 and a half times.
6. If you were to read a page every hour for fifteen years you would be able to read the entire novel 589 times.
7. An anagram of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is - He hopes hard not to prosper at Slytherin.
8. There are 1,100,086 words in the entire Harry Potter series. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone contains only 7% of the entire word count with 77,674 words.
9. Bloomsbury’s initial hardback print run of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997 was a tiny 500 copies.
10. The name Harry Potter appears 29 times in the main text of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, whilst Voldemort appears more often with 38 mentions!
11. The sign for Platform 9 and three quarters is the only thing to appear on both the original and new covers of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It appears on the front cover of the original and the back cover of the latest edition.
12. Harry doesn’t say anything in the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as he is only a
baby. His first word in the novel comes in the second chapter and is ‘nearly’.
13. Harry enters Hogwarts in Chapter seven of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and the first teacher he meets in the school is Professor McGonagall.
14. Harry and Ron meet for the first time on page 70 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone between platforms nine and ten at King’s Cross. Harry meets Hermione for the first time on page 79 as they travel on the Hogwarts Express.
15. In a recent poll for Bloomsbury Professor Severus Snape was voted the favourite Harry Potter character from the books. Harry came in fourth place after Hermione Granger at No.2 and Sirius Black at No. 3. Celebrating 15 years of Harry Potter magic.
The search for UK and Ireland’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan
From an idea born on a train journey, to its creation in a small cafe in Edinburgh Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the book that started a global phenomenon. Rejected by many publishers and with an initial hardback print run of 500 copies, it has now sold over 90 million copies worldwide. It is the book that put Harry’s destiny in motion and created a whole new generation of readers. It is hard to think now that before 1997 none of us knew about Hogwarts, Quidditch or Voldemort (who was voted as the favourite literary villain in a recent Bloomsbury poll). To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Bloomsbury is launching a nationwide competition to find the UK’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan.
Bloomsbury is inviting fans to write a letter of no more than 50 words explaining why they love HARRY POTTER. We are looking for the most creative, clever and entertaining reasons and, while the word limit is set to a strict 50 words, entrants are encouraged to draw, doodle and make their letters as elaborate as possible.
HARRY POTTER fans can only enter by visiting a local bookshop or library and posting their letter in the specially designed postboxes. Over 1800 bookshops and libraries have already signed up to take part. The competition will run from Tuesday 26th June to Tuesday 31st July 2012 after which we will name the UK and Ireland’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan. The winner and runners up will be announced on Saturday 1st September.*
The competition is an ideal opportunity for fans to show how much they love HARRY POTTER as well as supporting their local bookshop or library. Details of how to enter and a list of participating bookshops and libraries can be found on the website: www.bloomsbury.com/harrypottercompetition
*The winner will receive a family holiday to experience the magic and excitement of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ only at Universal Orlando® Resort and a leather-bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15th Anniversary Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The limited number 15th Anniversary Editions are exclusive to the competition and cannot be purchased elsewhere. Fourteen runners-up will also each receive a leather-bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15th Anniversary Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Good luck, I really hope you win, hun!
ReplyDeleteI love those facts! Number 7 especially. I don't think I've come across that one before! :)
ReplyDeleteCan't believe it has been 15 years!
ReplyDelete