Boris Johnson: Harry Potter needs to come back to Britain
8th June 2010
London mayor Boris Johnson cannot understand why a theme park based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is being built in Florida and not the UK.
On June 18th, film studio Warner Bros will open The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, which boasts a number of rides, shops and restaurants revolving around the boy wizard's adventures.
Writing in his column for the Daily Telegraph, Johnson said he 'bitterly' resents Orlando being chosen as the place of pilgrimage for the world's Harry Potter fans, saying the books are quintessentially British.
He pointed out that many of the iconic settings of the books, such as wand shops in Diagon Alley, the portals to the Ministry of Magic and the Hogwarts train departing from King's Cross, are based in London.
'[The UK] is just about the most creative and imaginative country on earth - and yet sometimes we just don't seem to have the gumption to exploit our intellectual property,' the author wrote.
Johnson also called on parents of Harry Potter-loving children to write to Warner Bros, Universal Studios and Rowling herself to encourage them to 'bring Harry home to Britain'.