JK Rowling | Biography of Joanne Rowling

Childhood and youth

Joan Kate Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in an ordinary family living in the British city of Waithe. Dad, Peter James Rowling, was an engineer at Rolls-Royce, and mother, Anne Rowling, kept the home going. Two years after the birth of Joan, the youngest daughter, Dianna, appeared in the family. In 1969, when the children were a little older, the family moved to the neighboring village of Winterbourne.

The writer recalls her childhood with a smile on her face. She still remembers how much fun she and her sister had playing together. The parents took care of the girls, and there was always comfort in their home. Today Joan shows many photographs to prove this. The woman said in various interviews that it was her parents who instilled in her a love of literature: they read a lot to their daughters.

JK Rowling wrote her first short work when she was six years old. Since then, she has not stopped composing.

In 1974, the Rowling family moved to Tatsheel , located in Gloucestershire. For Joan, the move was a real shock, because she was left without school friends, whom she loved very much.

In 1980, the writer's mother fell ill with multiple sclerosis . The disease progressed very quickly, none of the doctors could help Anne Rowling. At that time, Joan reached adolescence, she often argued with her father and even once stopped talking to him. Multiple sclerosis tormented Joan's mother for ten years. In December 1990, Anne Rowling died. Joan buried her parent and decided to go to London.

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Joanne Rowling is one of the most famous modern British authors. Her series of fantasy books about Harry Potter brought her fame and made millions of people happy. All “Harry Potter” books were adapted into films that had a great success.

JKRowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Yate, England. She had a difficult childhood because her mother was often ill so young Joanne had to take care of herself and her sister as well. Nevertheless, she started writing fiction at the age of 9 and read her stories to the sister. Joanne greatly admired Jessica Mitford (English author and journalist) whose biography inspired her to become a writer. Rowling wanted to resemble her idol.

After progressing from the University, Rowling moved to London where an idea of writing a novel about a magical school came to her. She continued writing the first book about Harry Potter when she moved to Portugal to work as a teacher of English. The “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” was finished in Edinburgh but nobody wanted to publish it at first.

Several months later the rights to her book were bought by a US publishing house that gave her a great amount of money so that she could continue writing. Since then JKRowling has written 7 books about Harry Potter and several novels connected to a magical world: “The tales of Beedle the Bard”, “Fantastic beasts and where to find them”, “Quidditch through the Ages”.

Translation:

JK Rowling is one of the most famous modern British writers. Her series of books about Harry Potter brought her fame and made millions of people happy. All of her books and Harry Potter were filmed and were a great success.

DK Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Yeta, England. She had a difficult childhood as her mother was often ill, leaving young Joan to take care of herself and her sister. However, she began writing at age 9 and read her stories to her sister. Joan greatly admired Jessica Mittford, the English writer and journalist whose biography inspired her to become a writer. Rowling wanted to be like her idol.

After graduating from university, Rowling moved to London, where she got the idea to write a novel about a magic school. She went on to write her first Harry Potter book when she moved to Portugal to teach English there. She finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Edinburgh, but no one wanted to publish it at first.

A few months later, the rights to her book were bought by an American publisher, who paid her a large sum of money, thanks to which she could continue writing. Since that time, Rowling has written 7 books about Harry Potter, as well as several novels related to the world of magic: “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, “Quidditch from Antiquity to the Present Day”.

Useful phrases and words:

To bring fame - bring glory

To have a great success - to have great success, enjoy great success

To take care of – to take care of someone

Fiction - fiction

To resemble smb - to resemble someone

To publish a book - publish a book

Novel - novel

Creative path

The beginning of JK Rowling's writing career is considered to be 1997, when the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , which became the first part of works about the young wizard. The original circulation of the publication was only a thousand copies. At the end of autumn of the same year, the book received the Nestle Smarties Book Prize. The following year it was awarded the international British Book Award.

The success of the first part was stunning. In the United States of America, the writer’s talent was recognized and an auction was held for the right to publish the book. The bidding was won by the publishing house Scholastic Incorporation. The company had to pay a little more than one hundred thousand dollars.

Rowling felt the taste of success and did not shelve the continuation of the series. Already in the summer of 1998, she released the second part - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . In 2000, Prisoner of Azkaban was released. Some fans thought that this would be the end of the work, but a little later the next part, “The Goblet of Fire,” was published. This book sold 373 thousand copies around the world in just twenty-four hours.

In 2003, Joan released the fifth book in the series, “The Order of the Phoenix.” Two years later, Rowling published The Half-Blood Prince. The work again breaks sales records - more than nine million copies were sold per day. In 2007, the writer presented the seventh and final book in the series, “The Deathly Hallows.”

Today, all parts of the saga about the young wizard have been translated into more than seventy languages. The increase in popularity of books was facilitated by films based on their stories.

The directors of famous science fiction films are:

Chris Columbus;
Alfonso Cuaron;
Mike Newell;
David Yates.

Rowling is known today not only for the Harry Potter series, but also for many other works. For example, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is a book whose plot is based on events that took place sixty-five years before Harry was born.

Joan did not indicate her name as the author of the book, but her literary pseudonym - Newt Scamander. Perhaps that is why people who are not fans of the writer’s work did not recognize her “hands.” Rowling decided that most of the money from the sale of the work (almost £13 million) would go to children's charity.

For two years, from 2007 to 2009, Joan wrote the children's fairy tale “The Bunny Bunny and Her Jerky Stump . The work was also appreciated, and Prince Charles awarded the writer the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Rowling wrote her first social drama, The Casual Vacancy, in 2012. The writer said that this book is intended for teenagers and adults.

Joan also left her mark on the detective genre. “The Cuckoo's Calling” is what she called her crime novel. There is a funny story about the authorship associated with the publication of the book. Rowling did not write her last name on the cover and indicated the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Only three months after the publication of the work it turned out that it belonged to Joan. The woman explained to reporters that she wanted to see real criticism that would not depend on the author’s fame.

The writer writes to this day . The first place in the list of books by JK Rowling, of course, is the Harry Potter series. She also wrote works related to the world of Hogwarts:

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them";
"Tales of Beedle the Bard";
"Quidditch from ancient times to the present day";
"Harry Potter: The Background";
"Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide";
"Short Stories from Hogwarts about Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists";
"Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies."

Joan’s separate work, which was not included in the series, is the social drama “The Casual Vacancy.” The writer also created several books about Cormoran Strike :

"The Cuckoo's Calling";
"Silkworm";
"In the service of evil";
"Deadly White"

JK Rowling now

In addition to the seven books that directly formed the story of Harry Potter and his friends, JK Rowling wrote and published several more novels in one way or another related to the magical world of Hogwarts.
Thus, in 2001 and 2008, the books “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, “Quidditch from Antiquity to the Present”, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”, “Harry Potter: Prehistory” were published, which became similar applications to novels about a young wizard. Thus, readers should have better understood the world in which this character exists. In addition, in 2012 and 2013, two more books by the writer were published - “Casual Vacancy” and “The Cuckoo's Calling” (not published in Russian). These novels are intended for an adult audience.

Currently, in addition to her writing, JK Rowling is actively involved in charity work.

Personal life

Rowling immediately after graduating from school began working as a secretary in a large English company, but this position did not suit her, so she decided not to waste time and looked for another place. In the newspaper, Joan found a vacancy for a teacher in Portugal. Rowling had no attachment to her homeland and decided to move.

The girl quickly settled into the new place and met Jorge Arantes, a journalist for a local TV channel. The young people fell in love with each other and got married in the fall of 1992. In the middle of the summer of 1993, a daughter, Jessica, appeared in the family.

The relationship between the spouses was not ideal , despite the birth of their daughter, but Joan always tried to save the family, sometimes to her own detriment. Experts, analyzing the biography of JK Rowling, suggested that the writer suffered from assault from her husband. To confirm this hypothesis, the woman herself told how her husband kicked her and her daughter out of the house, having previously beaten her.

At the end of 1993, Joan, along with her small child and several chapters of Harry Potter, moved to her younger sister Dianna in the Scottish city of Edinburgh. As a single mother, she began to receive an allowance of seventy pounds. Of course, this amount could only be enough for the bare necessities. Joan did not despair and got to work even harder.

The first bitter experience of creating a family for the writer resulted in indecision before creating a new serious relationship. Rowling divided her free time between her daughter and her writing. Only eight years later, at the end of 2001, the woman got married to Dr. Neil-Michael Murray . JK Rowling's new husband is five years younger than her.

Two years later, the couple had a son, who was named David. A couple of years later, the happy parents had a baby named Mackenzie. After giving birth, the woman gave an interview in which she said that she was very happy surrounded by children and a loving husband.

Biography and books by Rowling JK

Joanne Rowling British writer. Uses the pseudonym Robert Galbraith for detective stories. JK Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in the town of Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire, near Bristol, becoming the eldest of two daughters in the family. When the future writer was nine years old, the Rowlings moved to the town of Chepstow in the county of Gwent (Wales). After graduating from high school there in 1983, Rowling entered the University of Exeter, where she studied French. This gave her the opportunity to spend a year in Paris. After graduating from university, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree, Rowling moved to London, where she changed several jobs. She spent most of her time with the international human rights organization Amnesty International. In 1990, the future writer moved to Manchester, and that’s when she first came up with the idea of a children’s book about a boy wizard. Also in 1990, Rowling's mother died of multiple sclerosis. A few months later, Joan got a job as an English teacher in Porto, Portugal's second largest city. In Porto, Rowling met her future husband, television journalist Jorge Arantes. They got married in 1992, from this marriage they had a daughter, Jessica. Quite soon, Rowling and Arantes broke up: her husband, according to the writer, literally kicked her and her daughter out of the house. By Christmas 1994, Rowling was back in the UK. She and her daughter moved to Edinburgh, where her younger sister Di lived at the time. By this time, a significant part of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, had already been written. In an effort to complete the book, Rowling did not take a permanent job and finished writing the novel in cafes, including the popular Nicolson's, which belonged to her relative. In 1995, Rowling sent the first draft of the novel to two literary agents, and the first returned the text almost immediately, not considering it promising, and the second, Christopher Little, nevertheless undertook to add the manuscript. He succeeded a year later: “Harry Potter” attracted the interest of the small London publishing house Bloomsbury. His employee Barry Cunningham offered the writer a modest advance (one and a half thousand pounds sterling) in August 1996, which Rowling readily accepted. The first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in 1997 and amounted to only a thousand copies, half of which went to children's libraries. The book did not make much of an impression, but critics still noticed it. The Scottish organization The Scottish Art Council provided Rowling with a grant so that she could begin the second volume of the Potter series. In the same year, at a professional fair for children's literature publishers in Bologna, Barry Cunningham managed to sell the rights to the American edition of Harry Potter to Scholastic, which offered the writer an unusually large advance for a debutante - $105,000. The writer had, however, to change the title of the book to “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Subsequently, she never adapted the titles of the novels for an American audience. The second book about Harry Potter (“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”) appeared in 1998. That same year, the film studio Warner Bros. bought the film rights to two Rowling novels. They were released in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Both were directed by Chris Columbus. Rowling herself wanted to see Terry Gilliam direct the films, but the choice was left to the studio. The third and fourth novels (“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, in Russian translation respectively “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”) were published in 1999 and 2000 Their film adaptations appeared in 2004 and 2006, respectively. Just after Christmas 2001 (December 26), JK Rowling remarried. This time her chosen one was Edinburgh anesthetist Neil Scott Murray. The birth of two children (the couple had a son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, in March 2003, and a daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, in January 2005) slowed down work on new Potter sequels. The fifth book (“Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix”) was published in 2003, its film adaptation saw the world in 2007, and the sixth (“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince") - in 2005, the film premiere of which took place in 2009. The seventh and final novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released in the UK and US, as well as several other countries, at midnight on July 21, 2007 local time. The premiere of Rowling's book was preceded by a series of leaks: several hackers and pirates posted a synopsis and then digital photographs of the American edition of the book on the Internet. An investigation undertaken by Scholastic publishing house revealed the sources of the leaked photographs: they turned out to be Levy Home Entertainment (LHE) and DeepDiscount.com, which, despite the embargo, delivered approximately 1,200 copies of the novel to American readers. One of the buyers posted the reshot pages of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” on file-sharing networks. In addition, two days before the release of the novel, The New York Times published a review of the novel written by the publication's leading critic Michiko Kakutani. The author admitted that she bought the book from a New York store that also violated the embargo. Rowling and publishers Bloomsbury and Scholastic have asked those who already have copies of the novel to “not ruin the fun for other readers.” The film adaptation of the latest book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is a film in 2 parts, the first of which was released in 2010, and the second is due to appear in 2011. Rowling did not object to this division.

Rowling has repeatedly assured that the seventh novel will be the last in the series, but on the eve of its release she did not rule out that she would write a continuation of the adventures of her heroes in the future. Her agent also announced that the writer plans to publish an encyclopedia of characters and realities from her novels. The total worldwide circulation of the first six Harry Potter novels was 325 million copies. In March 2007, 41-year-old Rowling's fortune was estimated by Forbes magazine at one billion dollars. Since 2004, Rowling has been the richest woman in Britain.

The Harry Potter novels brought the writer many awards, including Nestle Smarties Gold Award (three times), British Book Awards, Children's Book Award (twice), The Booksellers Association/The Bookseller Author of the Year Award (twice), Scottish Arts Council Children's Book Award (twice), Spanish Prince of Asturias Award. In 2000, Rowling became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Rowling does a lot of charity work. In particular, she supports the Single Parents Foundation and the Foundation for Research into Multiple Sclerosis, the disease from which her mother died. Rowling is named among the close friends of Sarah Brown, the wife of the current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

October 20, 2010 Lenta.ru The first laureate of the Andersen Prize was JK Rowling. The first laureate of the Hans Christian Andersen Literary Prize was the British writer JK Rowling, CBC News reports. This newly established prize is awarded to children's writers for their closeness to Andersen's ideas. The award ceremony took place on October 19 in Andersen’s homeland, in the Danish city of Odense. The monetary reward for the prize winner is 500 thousand crowns (about 100 thousand dollars).

Interesting Facts

Any outstanding author has his own distinctive features. Rowling is no exception. The writer’s biography contains many interesting facts , for example:

Rowling listens to the concerts of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky when creating her works. She writes each word with a pen on paper. Only when the manuscript is finished does Joan type the text on the keyboard and send it to the editor.
Employees of the publishing house Scholastic Incorporation suggested Rowling take a pseudonym. The woman decided to add Caitlin's grandmother's initials to her last name. The result is a laconic JK Rowling. Even today, with her official surname Murray, Joan publishes under a pseudonym, which has brought her worldwide fame.
It happens that a writer does not have a notepad at hand, then she can write down a thought on any surface. One day, during a flight, she came up with an idea about the names of the faculties at the magical school of Hogwarts. She wrote them down on a disposable paper bag.

Thanks to her work, the writer became not only famous, but also financially secure. In 2020, the influential Forbes magazine calculated how much JK Rowling earned from her creative work. Her fortune exceeded six hundred and fifty million dollars.

Latest events

Today the writer does not skimp on charity . Joan donates huge sums to fight social inequality and helps families who find themselves in difficult situations, because she, too, was in a difficult financial situation in her youth. The woman also sponsors projects to study multiple sclerosis, from which her mother died.

In 2020, the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” was shown on the stages of London theaters. There were many assumptions and rumors before the start of the performance that the premiere of a full-fledged work was coming - the eighth part of the saga. However, all speculation was quickly dispelled when it was stated that Joan was only working on the plot. Written by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. The script shows a new story. The action takes place nineteen years after the events of Deathly Hallows.

In the fall of 2020, additional collections of stories for the seven parts of the saga were published on Rowling's official Pottermore resource. The plots describe minor characters and the history of the appearance of the ominous Azkaban prison.

The latest news says that the writer continues her active creative work. She gradually announces the details of the relationships between the various characters in brief interviews. The author's motive is quite clear - fans of creativity always want to know more than is written in books.

It's safe to say that JK Rowling is an original author. Today, almost all of the writer’s works have become bestsellers.