Harry Potter and the large glass of Blossom Hill (With apologies to JK Rowling)

Written by Anne Burchett

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

"JK Rowling does not write very well, does she?" This outburst from one of my Creative Writing course lecturers reminded me forcibly of the deprecating comments made by some of our most esteemed wine writers about Blossom Hill.

I remembered then how I had happily bought into the Harry Potter franchise and loved it. Admittedly I read the first tome just after sitting my Diploma at a time when the pressures of juggling a full time job, young children and a return to academia had possibly wrung my brain dry of most of its critical ability.

But isn't that obliviousness where most female consumers are at when tucking into their first glass of Blossom Hill after a long day at work or running after kids or both? And if their tipple of choice works for them, how can we convince them to experiment further?

Would I have stuck to Blossom Hill if I had not worked in the wine business? Will I spurn JK Rowling's oeuvre when I come to the end of my writing course? Or do those "in the know" too often wrongly equate mass appeal and commercial success with lack of quality?

JK Rowling eventually stopped churning out new offerings of Harry Potter, thus leaving her devotees free to try another author. Supplies of Blossom Hill however are not going to run dry anytime soon. Any attempts to entice its faithful followers away to a more varied or more premium register had better be irresistibly compelling.

After twenty years (ill?) spent in the Wine Trade, Anne Burchett is currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing and writing a novel set - unsurprisingly - in the world of wine.