Data Loading...
JK ROWLING Biography
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
ABOUT JK ROWLING ◦ Joanne Rowling was born on 31st July 1965 at Yate General Hospital near Bristol, and grew up in Gloucestershire in England and in Chepstow, Gwent, in south-east Wales. ◦ Her father, Peter, was an aircraft engineer at the Rolls Royce factory in Bristol and her mother, Anne, was a science technician in the Chemistry department at Wyedean Comprehensive, where Jo herself went to school. Anne was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when Jo was a teenager and died in 1990, before the Harry Potter books were published. Jo also has a younger sister, Di. ◦ The young Jo grew up surrounded by books. “I lived for books,’’ she has said. “I was your basic common-or-garden bookworm, complete with freckles and National Health spectacles.”
◦ Jo conceived the idea of Harry Potter in 1990 while sitting on a delayed train from Manchester to London King’s Cross. Over the next five years, she began to map out all seven books of the series. She wrote mostly in longhand and gradually built up a mass of notes, many of which were scribbled on odd scraps of paper. ◦ Taking her notes with her, she moved to northern Portugal to teach English as a foreign language, married Jorge Arantes in 1992 and had a daughter, Jessica, in 1993. When the marriage ended later that year, she returned to the UK to live in Edinburgh, with Jessica and a suitcase containing the first three chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. ◦ In Edinburgh, Jo trained as a teacher and began teaching in the city’s schools, but she continued to write in every spare moment. ◦ Having completed the full manuscript, she sent the first three chapters to a number of literary agents, one of whom wrote back asking to see the rest of it. She says it was “the best letter I had ever received in my life.” ◦ The book was first published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books in June 1997, under the name J.K. Rowling.
◦ The “K” stands for Kathleen, her paternal grandmother’s name. It was added at her publisher’s request, who thought a book by an obviously female author might not appeal to the target audience of young boys. ◦ The book was published in the US by Scholastic under a different title (again at the publisher’s request), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, in 1998. Six further titles followed in the Harry Potter series, each achieving record-breaking success. ◦ In 2001, the film adaptation of the first book was released by Warner Bros., and was followed by six more book adaptations, concluding with the release of the eighth film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, in 2011. ◦ J.K. Rowling has also written two small companion volumes, which appear as the titles of Harry’s school books within the novels. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages were published in March 2001 in aid of Comic Relief. In December 2008, a third companion volume, The Tales of Beedle the Bard was published in aid of her international children’s charity, Lumos. ◦ In 2012, J.K. Rowling’s digital company Pottermore was launc
FAMOUS NOVELS BY JK ROWLING
* HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE
* HARRY POTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETE
* HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAB
* HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
* HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX PRINCE
* HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD
* HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART –I -II
* HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART
◦ Awards & Achievements ◦ For her outstanding contribution to the literary world, she has been conferred with the prestigious Legion d'honneur by French government and Order of the British Empire. ◦ She is the proud recipient of the National Book Awards, British Book Awards, Hugo Award, British Book of the Year award, Locus Awar, Bram Stoker award, Hans Christian Anderson Literature award and many more. Furthermore, she has been offered honorary degrees from various universities and colleges