The name of the street where the Dursleys live is a reference to that most suburban plant, the privet bush, which makes neat hedges around many English gardens. I liked the associations with both suburbia and enclosure, the Dursleys being so smugly middle class, and so determinedly separate from the wizarding world. The name of their area is 'Little Whinging', which again sounds appropriately parochial and sniffy, 'whinging' being a colloquial term for 'complaining or whining' in British English.
J.K Rowling:
Although I describe the Dursleys' house as big and square, as befitted Uncle Vernon's status as a company director, whenever I wrote about it I was unconsciously visualising the second house I lived in as a child, which on the contrary was a rather small three-bedroomed house in the suburb of Winterbourne, near Bristol. I first became conscious of this when I entered the number four Privet Drive that had been built at Leavesden Studios, and found myself in an exact replica of my old house, down to the position of the cupboard under the stairs and the precise location of each room. As I had never described my old home to the set designer, director or producer, this was yet another of the unsettling experiences that filming the Potter books has brought me.
For no very good reason, I have never been fond of the number four, which has always struck me as a rather hard and unforgiving number, which is why I slapped it on the Dursleys' front door.
J.K Rowling:
Although I describe the Dursleys' house as big and square, as befitted Uncle Vernon's status as a company director, whenever I wrote about it I was unconsciously visualising the second house I lived in as a child, which on the contrary was a rather small three-bedroomed house in the suburb of Winterbourne, near Bristol. I first became conscious of this when I entered the number four Privet Drive that had been built at Leavesden Studios, and found myself in an exact replica of my old house, down to the position of the cupboard under the stairs and the precise location of each room. As I had never described my old home to the set designer, director or producer, this was yet another of the unsettling experiences that filming the Potter books has brought me.
For no very good reason, I have never been fond of the number four, which has always struck me as a rather hard and unforgiving number, which is why I slapped it on the Dursleys' front door.
It was a crisp autumn eve on the Hogwarts express. Albus, James and Rosie where eating cauldron cakes and goofing off, when suddenly an owl soared by and tapped furiously on the glass. Albus opened the window and the owl burst in and stuck out its leg at Albus. Albus unstrapped the note attached to its leg. The owl stared into Albus' eyes and glared.
Then without another backwards glance it took off. "What does it say?" said Rosie who looked terrified. Albus read aloud "potter, if you ever want to see your parents again you will meet me outside the shrieking shack at midnight on Halloween." "Its signed lord Voldemort" said James.
"This doesn't add up" said Rosie. " well we will have to discuss this later because now’s the sorting." Albus said. “cross your fingers that we all get in the same house." said James. "We will!" they all said in unison.
Then without another backwards glance it took off. "What does it say?" said Rosie who looked terrified. Albus read aloud "potter, if you ever want to see your parents again you will meet me outside the shrieking shack at midnight on Halloween." "Its signed lord Voldemort" said James.
"This doesn't add up" said Rosie. " well we will have to discuss this later because now’s the sorting." Albus said. “cross your fingers that we all get in the same house." said James. "We will!" they all said in unison.