Book Review: Harry Potter: Magical Places from the Films: Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, and Beyond

Harry Potter: Magical Places from the Films is actually one of the books from the Harry Potter Page to Screen Collector's Edition. In that collector's edition, the book was titled Environments Envisioned: Building Fantastic Sets and Scouting Dramatic Locations. I don't have the collector's edition, so I can't compare the exact contents, so I'll just talk about this book alone.

I only have the standard edition of Harry Potter Page to Screen so the first thing I want to say is it's great to have this book sold separately rather than bundling it into the pricey collector's edition. Sure it took a long time for it for come out but it's more affordable, and all fans can enjoy the book now.

This is a large 208-page hardcover film companion. The cover has a nice design with trimmings embossed. The presentation is beautiful and the same can be said about the layout inside. The pages are filled with behind the scenes photography, film stills and lots of commentary. Fans will no doubt find it extremely satisfying to delve into the information and revisit the Harry Potter world again — I know I did.

This book focuses on the locations and sets. There are environment concept art, stories on how the sets were build, what was filmed there, how the props were created, how the sets relate to the movie and the book, and many other bits of interesting details.

There are nine chapters and they are

1. Dursley's House
2. Diagon Alley
3. King's Cross Station
4. Hogwarts Castle
5. Hogwarts Classrooms and Offices
6. Hogwarts Grounds
7. Hogsmeade
8. Ministry of Magic
9. Wizarding Homes

Highly recommended to all Harry Potter fans. It's the only way to "visit" all the grounds without being growled by Snape.

Another thing to note is there are two publishers for this book, Harper Design and Titan Books. Depending on where you buy it, the price of the book will differ.

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Here are direct links to the book:

From publisher Harper Design:
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From publisher Titan Books
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