Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard

Product Information

Felton talks frankly about his mental health struggles, his time in rehab, his time out of rehab, and for the first time in Beyond the Wand, it felt like he was actually writing his story as opposed to trying to please a bunch of Harry Potter fans. Here is a quick description and cover image of book Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard written by Tom Felton which was published in 2022-10-18.

It’s short, so it should have taken me half a day to read it, but it kept dragging on for a whole week. There's a negative connotation around mental health and rehab regardless, but there's also so many instances in Beyond the Wand when Felton talks about the disconnect between being emotional and being a traditionally masculine, British man. I thought his tragic backstory had heart to it and I joined the legions of fans who looked into the mirror and saw Draco's hidden good sides. we live in a world where we seem increasingly in need of ways to unify ourselves, ways to build bridges and feel as one.FP: I do feel like I need to ask, since at BuzzFeed, we work to provide a safe space for our readers — and Hogwarts has been such a safe space for so many readers and fans throughout the years. For the next ten years, he was at the center of a huge pop culture phenomenon and yet, in between filming, he would go back to being a normal teenager trying to fit into a normal school. I'm just kind of, like, saving it for that, like, super epic Potter marathon one day, which I plan to do hopefully with my own family.

Draco was definitely one of my first big crushes, I got to meet Tom Felton at Fan Expo in high school (I still have the autograph and photo op in a binder somewhere), and I watched a lot of movies I really didn't enjoy just because Tom Felton was in them. The insights into Tom's world when filming the Harry Potter movies and some of his other movies was really cool. It was a beautiful passage, and I'm almost angry that Beyond the Wand was what it was, when I know for a clear fact that Felton is capable of writing with so much more depth.Along the way he shares fond memories of encounters with everyone from Judi Dench to the late Robbie Coltrane, and speaks poignantly of his close friendship with fellow Harry Potter star Emma Watson. It's the hows and whys of child actor Tom, with some fun anecdotes, and then the meat is Harry Potter. I, of course, picked up this book as someone who has been a Harry Potter fan since I was a teenager.

Yet “Beyond the Wand” is most insightful when Felton translates his tale into something more universal.Accordingly, it does that well, but in the wider world of celebrity memoirs it is a bit one dimensional. Although he has little to say about the Harry Potter filmmakers (aside from original director Chris Columbus) and dances around touchier matters (such as co-star Jamie Waylett’s arrest and franchise exit), Felton does drop endearing tidbits about the movies’ parade of British acting royalty. Now with humor, candor, and a gift for storytelling, Tom shares what it was like to grow up at the center of the zeitgeist, the lasting friendships he made on set, and what it was like to navigate fame after the series was done.