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Daily Mirror

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Emer Scully

Inside Harry Potter's magical world - and how it nearly didn't happen 25 years ago

Harry Potter JK Rowling Daniel Radcliffe Emma Watson Rupert Grint Hagrid Lego Robbie Coltrane

It's been 25 years since the bestselling novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone marked the beginning of a global phenomenon.

Author J.K. Rowling conjured up her boy wizard and the world of Hogwarts while stuck on a train and fought to have her novel accepted by publishers before it became a billion pound franchise.

It was rejected 12 times before Bloomsbury eventually released it to the world in 1997. Rowling went on to write a further six Harry Potter books which have since been translated into 80 languages.

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