If there is a connection between Harry Potter and my new novel, it's my interest in characters.

Clever as I am, I remain just as big a fool as anyone else.

Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.

And it's Gryfindor in possession again, as Johnson takes the Quaffle - Flint alongside her - poke him in the eye, Angelina - it was a joke, professor, it was a joke.

Be good now, Potty...Weasel King.

Andrew hated to see her humiliated and pathetic like this; but he half hated her too for landing herself in it, when any idiot could have seen.

Seven years after becoming a lone parent, I feel qualified to look anyone in the eye and say that people bringing up children single-handedly deserve, not condemnation, but congratulation.