jim Kay looks like one of his own illustrations.
Because he’s gentle and captivating, that is - not because he’s sketchy. The award-winning Harry Potter illustrator is sitting beside me at one end of a long mahogany table, with a mug of tea.
Jim’s illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is sitting between us. I run my thumb along its smooth, cold spine and open it at one of my favourite pages: it’s a picture of Hermione Granger in a corridor at Hogwarts.
‘Hermione is completely based on my niece. She’s ever so sweet,’ he says, moving his hands around like they’re a little bit lost without a pencil.
‘To me she is Hermione: studious and slightly, well, not quite aloof, but she tends to tell me off a lot when she sees me. She’s constantly saying I’m not behaving properly, so the character’s exactly right.’