So Harry Potter is dead. Hold your ire. Don’t panic. I have no idea, at the time of writing, whether J.K. Rowling’s young hero has really met his match at the hands of his flat-nosed nemesis Lord Voldemort. Until a few hours ago, the issue was shrouded in an improbably solemn veil of rumour and gossip.

But what we do know is that Harry Potter the concept, the brand, the franchise, is now well and truly ended, give or take the odd multi-million pound-earning catch up film. Ms Rowling has decreed that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be the seventh and last book in the series and who can honestly blame her?