As the British state begins to unravel, and journalists compete to pronounce on the death of Britain, a schoolboy from suburban Surrey who lives for most of the year in a semi-parallel universe becomes the most popular figure in contemporary world literature. Harry Potter is an orphan, oppressed and abused by the adults around him, who retreats into a fantasy world. But ironically, as Andrew Blake makes clear, J.K. Rowling rescues her character through the reinvention of that apex of class privilege, the English public school, a literary conceit that problematises Harry Potter's status as a role model and raises important social questions about the state of Blair's Britain. Andrew Blake's examination of the Harry Potter phenomenon, the literary equivalent of fast food, also raises serious questions about the condition of the publishing industry, and filmmaking, and the ways in which the Potter consumer campaign has changed our ideas about literature and reading. Blake reflects on the ways in which these connections act as a template for Harry Potter's extraordinary international success.