J.K. Rowling said the idea for Harry Potter came to her on a train in 1990.
According to Rowling, she was traveling from Manchester to London when the character and basic premise of Harry Potter arrived in her imagination. She began developing the story afterward, including its characters, magical institutions, and long-term plot.
The train anecdote is often retold as if the entire seven-book series was written during that journey. In reality, the idea came first; Rowling spent years planning and writing before the first novel was published in 1997.
The train became an especially fitting origin story because Hogwarts students travel to school on the Hogwarts Express, a major recurring setting in the books.