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Gloucestershire
has perhaps got the closest links of any county with the Harry Potter
phenomenon.
The
author JK Rowling was born in the county in 1965 and christened
Joanna Kathleen. She attended primary school at Tutshill and Wyedean
Comprehensive School, both in the Forest of Dean.
She
always wanted to be an author and wrote her first book, called Rabbit,
with a cast of characters including a bumble bee called Miss Bee,
when she was just six years old.
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| JK
Rowling was born and went to school in Gloucestershire |
Her
family moved twice while JK Rowling was growing up and at one home
in Winterbourne, now in South Gloucestershire, she had friends next
door whose last name was Potter.
And
you don't have to look far to see where she found Harry's horrible
adoptive family - they share a name with the Gloucestershire town
of Dursley.
But
the county's Harry Potter connections don't end with JK Rowling.
Historic
Gloucester Cathedral has made its mark on the modern tourist
map with a starring role in the Harry Potter films.
Movie
magic transformed the cathedral's famous fan-vaulted cloisters into
the interior of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the
films Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets.
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The
Gloucester's Harry Potter connection has worked miracles on Gloucestershire's
tourism industry, which was hit hard by the drop in American holidaymakers
visiting the UK in the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York
in 2001.
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| Gloucester
Cathedral's cloisters become Hogwart's in the Harry potter films |
Since
the British Tourist Authority published a map showing UK film locations
in the Harry Potter movies the number
of people visiting the tourist information centre in Gloucester
increased by a quarter to 34,000 in the first five months of 2003.
The
head of tourism for Gloucestershire county council Chris Dee said
there were encouraging signs that Americans visitors are returning.
Stroud-based
company Snow Business has created artificial snow scenes in the
Harry Potter films as well as in the James Bond blockbuster Die
Another Day and Bridget Jones' Diary.
Spells
Would-be
wizards can find many of the magical herbs used in spells at Hogwart's
growing at the Selsley Herb Nursery near Stroud, including mandrakes,
monkshood, wolfbane, wormwood knotgrass,
fluxweed, dittany and belladonna.
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| Harry
Potter star Daniel Radcliffe filmed at Gloucester Cathedral |
Nursery
owner Rob Wimperis says: "I think a lot of children don't actually
realise how many plants mentioned in the Harry Potter books are
real herbs and do have a powerful and dramatic effect on people.
"Sadly,
here at the nursery, we've not been able to track down some of the
more outrageous plants from the wizarding world.
"Shrivelfigs,
bubotubours, devil's snare, gillyweed, leaping toadstools and the
venomous tentecula have all defeated us!"
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Young
wizard Harry Potter has recently returned to the screen in The Prizoner
of Azkaban. But did you know about his many links with the county
of Gloucestershire?
