Harry Potter: A History of Magic

An Audio Documentary

By: Pottermore Publishing, Ben Davies

Narrated by: Natalie Dormer

The history of magic is as long as time and as wide as the world. In every culture, in every age, in every place and, probably, in every heart, there is magic.

Harry Potter: A History of Magic reveals some of the hidden stories behind real-world magic and explores some of J.K. Rowling's magical inventions alongside their folkloric, cultural and historical forebears.

Narrator Natalie Dormer and a host of experts will take you on an audio journey like no other; from ancient China, to a 14th-century apothecary's shop, on to the Salem witch trials and beyond. They delve into a rich body of writings about magic and explore intriguing artefacts to bring to life deep-rooted ideas of mysticism from around the world.

Along the way, you can listen for handy tips on how to capture a basilisk, make yourself invisible or create your very own philosopher's stone. You'll hear about the dozens of drafts and drawings that went into J.K. Rowling's writing process and enjoy exclusive interviews with Jim Dale, Stephen Fry and illustrator Jim Kay, who all share their experiences of working on these incredible stories.

The extraordinary and thought-provoking tales in this audiobook are perfect for anyone who wants to know a little more about magic and the wizarding world.

In this audio documentary, Natalie Dormer takes you on a spellbinding exploration of the real-world history that influenced J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter stories. While not written by J.K. Rowling herself, nor taught by the slumbering Professor Binns, the documentary is inspired by the exhibition held at the British Library in 2017, which came to the New-York Historical Society in 2018. This audiobook is packed full of exclusive interviews, folkloric facts, and musings on intriguing artifacts and mysticism from around the world.

Music composed by Patrick Neil Doyle

Sound effects licensed from ProSound Effects

©2018 J.K. Rowling/Pottermore Ltd. (P)2018 J.K. Rowling/Pottermore Ltd.

Preordered without realizing this differed

I'll get this out the way first: This isn't Fantastic Beasts or Quidditch Through the Ages. It's not a Harry Potter schoolbook brought to life. What it is is basically an audio walkthrough of the History of Magic exhibits. I don't know if the original description didn't clarify this waaay back when I preordered, or I just overlooked it. Either way, that was quite a disappointment.

Getting past the fact that this wasn't what I was looking for, this was LONG and drawn out. There were some interesting bits, but it mostly went nowhere and only toward the end did it seem to keep some cohesiveness and momentum going.

The main narrator was great, and so were many of the guests. Unfortunately the head curator, Julian Harrison, was a frequent interview subject. Julian's voice is not only oddly deep and hollow, but he alternates between very high and low pitches in a single sentence which makes it VERY hard to listen to at a constant volume. I listened on a plane and many of his parts were drowned out by engine noise while I could hear everything else fine.

So, before going into this, first think if you really want to listen to a museum exhibition and some of the history of the items on display for this many hours. Then go find interviews with Julian Harrison on YouTube and be sure that you want to hear that voice a LOT.

If the answer to the above is "sure". Then godspeed.

Enjoyable but drags on in some places

Definitely struggled to finish this book. Put me to sleep. Some parts were interesting, some quite boring.

WHERE's THE PDF FILE!?!?!?!?!?!

This was so well narrated with wonderful interviews.

So what's the problem?

NO IMAGES OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS BEING DESCRIBED!!!!!!

GAH! This was so frustrating!! There so many wonderful interviews with artists and historians discussing a piece of art or one of JKR's original drawings.

SHOW IT!!!

It's alright for what it is

it's an okay book I for just being a history book of magic that is loosely based on harry potter.

History of Magic

Not what I was expecting BUT this is really good to listen to when you're working on other homework <3.