Full name: Joanne Kathleen Rowling
Nickname: Jo
Age: 39
Date of Birth: July 31st 1965 (the same day as Harry Potter)
Children: Daughter Jessica born in 1994, son David born March 23rd 2003, daughter Mackenzie born January 23rd 2005.
Marital Status: Rowling divorced soon after her first child was born and later remarried on December 26th 2001 to Dr. Neil Murray.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Quidditch through the Ages
- Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
J.K Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury General Hospital on Saturday July 31st 1965. She describes herself as a rotund baby- the description of baby Dudley as a beachball wearing different colour bobble hats could have been applied to her! Unlike Dudley however, Joanne Rowling took to writing at a young age- six. But like Dudley she had a somewhat rocky relationship with another child in the house, her younger sister Di. As children the two argued frequently and often threw things at each other. But unlike Harry and Dudley, deep down they got on well.
Joanna (JK) and Di Rowling had lived with their mother Ann and father Peter. The family moved several times while Jo was young. At first she lived in Yate, and then from there they moved to Winterbourne where she would play with her sister and two other children whose last names were Potter (although Harry?s character was not based on the boy).
After that the family moved to the Welsh countryside, Tutshill to be exact. She attended Wyedean Comprehensive School. Her favourite subject was English, but she enjoyed French as well. At lunchtime J.K. Rowling and her two friends would share stories with each other, normally involving themselves doing heroic and extraordinary things. JK was made Head Girl in her final year but she never did anything out of the ordinary with it.
Once she completed Comprehensive School she went straight to Exeter University, where she studied French, JK now admits that was a "big mistake?. Rather than succumbing parental pressure to go for a practical subject she stood have studied her favourite- English. When she finished University JK got a job as a secretary for Amnesty International but was rather disorganised. At meetings she would be jotting down ideas for stories rather than taking notes. Finally when she was 26, she quit the secretary job and took a career teaching English as a foreign language. In her free time she would write stories, usually set in other worlds and often involved some type of magic.
Harry came into JK?s life during a train journey from Manchester to London. She didn?t have a pen and so sat thinking through a four and a half hour delay. Much of what she thought of then has gone into the books but she does wonder what she?d forgotten by the time she got to a pen!
JK moved up to Manchester and began to write Philosopher?s Stone, although the early pages subsequently underwent drastic changes. But her own life also changed, when her mother died of Multiple Sclerosis in December 1990. She has since become an important campaigner and fund raiser in an effort to cure the disease. In the mean time though, a devastated JK left for Portugal and a teaching job. It was at this time that she wrote about the Mirror of Erised. She also married a Portuguese man and had a daughter Jessica.
In December 1994, JK returned to the UK, joining her sister in Edinburgh. Rather than find a job which would leave her with no spare time she devoted herself to Harry and frenzied writing. Famously, she wrote in cafes while her daughter slept in her pushchair. Contrary to popular belief, she did not go to the café for warmth! (She told a BBC interview that she would not have been daft enough to rent an unheated flat in Edinburgh).
After finishing the first book, JK Rowling set out to get it published. A first agent rejected it; but Christopher Little Literary Agents thought the book had potential. It took a year, but finally the book came to the attention of Bloomsbury publishers. On finding out that the book would be published, JK Rowling jumped for joy. And soon, Hogwarts letters were flying all over the world as Harry Potter?s world came alive for millions.
JK is now an accomplished writer; her 6 Harry Potter books and two Hogwarts school books have been published in over 30 languages and have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. She has won numerous literary prizes as well as honorary degrees and an OBE. She still lives in Edinburgh although in a rather nicer house (and two other properties in rural Scotland and London). She is married to Dr Neil Murray and now has three children, Jessica, David (born in 2003) and Mackenzie (2005).
We love Harry Potter and we love Jo.
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If you want to contact J.K Rowling we advise that you use one of the following mail addresses:
J.K Rowling
C/O Bloomsbury Publishing
38 Soho Square
London, W1V 5DF
England
or...
J.K Rowling
C/O Scholastic Books
555 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
U.S.A.
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