Harry Potter confronts Voldemort Twenty years on since the first film, the Harry Potter phenomenon is worth reassessing. Simply put, it is the greatest literary tour de force of the past quarter-century. I would claim more. JK Rowling has been the greatest contributor to the public good in the Western world in this period. Harry Potter has drawn millions of eight-year-olds, in the era of addictive electronic devices and video entertainment and communication, to read dense 800-page books written in an advanced prose that makes few concessions to limited syntax and vocabulary. In an era in which fewer and fewer people read books, Rowling has reversed the trend magnificently and created in many children reading habits that will last a lifetime. She has fed their imaginations with a treasure trove of vivid themes and characters.