J. K. Rowling

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, England.

Her father Peter James Rowling, a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer and mother Anne Rowling (née Volant), a science technician, first met on a train from King's Cross Station. Rowling later used King's Cross as a gateway into the Wizarding World.

J.K. Rowling (2010) By Daniel Ogren,

She grew up in Tutshill, Gloucestershire, and went to school at Wyedean Comprehensive.

J.K. Rowling claims that her Harry Potter character Dolores Umbridge is based on one of her old teachers, with whom she shared a mutual hatred.

Rowling earned a degree in French and Classics at the University of Exeter.

After graduating from Exeter in 1986, Rowling moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International.

Rowling secretly wrote stories on her work computer and daydreamed about her characters. Her Amnesty employers finally got fed up and dismissed her from her job.

She moved to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language in 1990.

HARRY POTTER

The original concept for Harry Potter came to Rowling in 1990 on a Manchester to London train that was delayed for four hours. She was staring out of the train's window of the train when the idea, plot and characters came to her.

Rowling began writing as soon as she reached her Clapham Junction flat. She completed the manuscript of her first Harry Potter story, called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in 1995, having written some of it in local cafés in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she was an unemployed single mother living on state benefits.

She mainly wrote in Nicolson's Café (owned by her brother-in-law) and the Elephant House. Rowling wrote in cafés because taking her baby out for a walk was the best way to make her fall asleep.

After being rejected by a dozen publishers, Barry Cunningham, then of Bloomsbury publishers, signed up Rowling and the author and company never looked back.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (British version) (American version: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) was first published in the United Kingdom in 1997.

JK Rowling was offered £2,000 as the advance for her first Harry Potter book. She has subsequently gone on to become a billionaire from further book deals and films about the young wizard, his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and his battles with the evil Voldemort.

Rowling wrote a real person into The Goblet of Fire. The girl was named Natalie McDonald, a Harry Potter fan who was dying of leukemia while Rowling was still writing the book. You see her character as a first-year who dons the sorting hat and is sorted into Gryffindor.

Rowling told U.S. television talk show host Oprah Winfrey in October 2010 that she cried uncontrollably when she finished the last of her best-selling Potter books.

Michael Jackson wanted to do a Harry Potter musical – but Rowling wasn't keen.

PERSONAL LIFE

J.K. Rowling married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes on October 16, 1992.

Their child, Jessica (named after Jessica Mitford), was born on July 27, 1993 in Portugal.

The marriage ended in divorce and Rowling moved to Edinburgh, Scotland to be near her sister with three chapters of what would become Harry Potter in her suitcase.

Rowling married Dr. Neil Murray on December 26, 2001 in a private ceremony at her home, Killiechassie House, near Aberfeldy. She had a second child, David, in 2003, and a third, Mackenzie, in January 2005.

In 2004, Forbes named Rowling as the first person to become a U.S.-dollar billionaire by writing books. In 2012, Forbes removed Rowling from their rich list, claiming that her US$160 million in charitable donations and the high tax rate in the UK meant she was no longer a billionaire.

Rowling has received honorary degrees from St Andrews University, the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University, the University of Exeter which she attended, the University of Aberdeen and Harvard University, for whom she spoke at the 2008 commencement ceremony.

Rowling, after receiving an honorary degree from the University of Aberdeen

Rowling suffers from Arachnophobia – a fear of spiders. She included giant man-eating spiders in her Harry Potter series.

Rowling's views on transgender rights have led to controversy, with by LGBT rights organizations and some feminists deeming them transphobic. The author has received support from other feminists and individuals.

Source The Montreal Gazette