Harry Potter influences and analogues Potter" involve an average eleven-year-old, better at sport than academic study, who is sent to boarding school. Upon arrival, the boy gains a best friend (in Tom's case, East, in Harry's case, Ron Weasley) who helps him adjust to the new environment. They are set upon by an arrogant bully – in Tom Brown's case, Harry Flashman, in Harry's case Draco Malfoy. Stephen Fry, who both narrates the British audio adaptations of the "Harry Potter" novels and has starred in a screen adaptation of "Tom Brown", has commented many times about the similarities between the two books. "Harry Potter –
Tom Brown (character) Tom Brown (character) Tom Brown is a fictional character created by author Thomas Hughes in his work "Tom Brown's School Days" (1857) which is set at a real English public school — Rugby School for Boys — in the 1830s when Hughes himself had been a pupil there. Tom Brown is based on the author's brother, George Hughes, and George Arthur is based on Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. In "Tom Brown's Schooldays", Tom Brown attends Rugby School after an epidemic means that he is unable to attend his local school in Berkshire. At Rugby, he befriends Harry "Scud" East, a slightly-senior