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A Most Controversial Book![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Travels with Li Po Just before Christmas The Bogside Artists published a small book for children called Travels with Li Po. The book written by one of the trio, William Kelly has caused much controversy because its resemblance to Harry Potter is, for many who have read it, conspicuously obvious. A lawyer who was shown the list of parallels between the Harry Potter series and this book was "flabbergasted". The story is about a young orphaned boy who is in search of The Holy Grail of Enlightenment known to the old achemists as The Philosopher's Stone. Once attained the boy will be granted magical powers. The central idea is that the hero Owen Muldoon is already such a sorcerer but doesn't yet know it. He is being educated into this realisation by a spirit bird, a magical Puffin called Li Po, who is a reincarnated Enlightened One and worthy guide and mentor for our young hero. This may all sound familiar to you but this book was written in 1990 a full six years before the first Harry Potter novel. It has now, for the first time been released to the public exactly as it was then. What took them so long? It is all in the preface of the book in which it is made abundantly clear that the political climate in Anglo-Irish relationships did not help any UK publisher to take a story like this on board. |