Politics of Harry Potter middle class, especially whenever Harry confronts his ludicrously dysfunctional and downright abusive adopted family, the Dursleys." The critic Anthony Holden wrote in "The Observer" on his experience of judging "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" for the 1999 Whitbread Awards. His overall view of the series was very negative—"the Potter saga was essentially patronising, very conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain." A review in "The Guardian" echoed this interpretation and stated that "despite all of the books' gestures to multiculturalism and gender equality, Harry Potter is a conservative; a paternalistic, One-Nation Tory, perhaps, but a Tory
Harry Potter (character) prototypical schoolyard bullies she encountered and Snape on a sadistic teacher of hers who abused his power. Rowling has stated that the "Mirror of Erised" chapter in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is her favourite; the mirror reflects Harry's deepest desire, namely to see his dead parents and family. Her favourite funny scene is when Harry inadvertently sets a boa constrictor free from the zoo in the horrified Dursleys' presence. In the second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", Rowling pits Harry against Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort's "memory" within a secret diary which has possessed Ron's younger