Inspiration and mother's death

J. K. Rowling

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J. K. Rowling
Rowling at the White House Easter Egg Roll, 2010
Born Joanne Rowling (1965-07-31) 31 July 1965 (age 47)[1] Yate, Gloucestershire, England
Occupation Novelist
Nationality British
Education Bachelor of Arts
Alma mater University of Exeter
Genres Children's literature, fantasy
Subjects Wizards and witches
Notable work(s) Harry Potter series
Spouse(s) Jorge Arantes (m. 1992–95) Neil Murray (m. 2001–present)
Children 2 daughters, 1 son
Relative(s) Peter Rowling (father) Anne Rowling (née Volant) (mother) Dianne Moore (sister)
Influences[show] · Harry Potter influences and analogues
 
Signature
www.jkrowling.com

Joanne "Jo" Rowling, ( /rol/) OBE, FRSL[2] (born 31 July 1965),[3] pen name J. K. Rowling,[4] is a British novelist, best known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies[5] to become the best-selling book series in history[6] and been the basis for a popular series of films, in which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts[7] as well as maintaining creative control by serving as a producer on the final instalment.[8] Rowling conceived the idea for the series on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990.[9]

Rowling has led a "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on social security to multi-millionaire status within five years. As of March 2011[update], when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling's net worth to be US$1 billion.[10] The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($798 million), ranking her as the twelfth richest woman in the United Kingdom.[11] Forbes ranked Rowling as the forty-eighth most powerful celebrity of 2007,[12] and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fans.[13] In October 2010, J. K. Rowling was named 'Most Influential Woman in Britain' by leading magazine editors.[14] She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, and Lumos (formerly the Children's High Level Group).

On 12 April 2012, Rowling announced that her new adult novel The Casual Vacancy would be published in the UK by Little, Brown and Company on 27 September 2012.[15]

Contents [hide]
  • 1 Name
  • 2 Biography
    • 2.1 Birth and family
    • 2.2 Childhood
    • 2.3 Inspiration and mother's death
    • 2.4 Marriage, divorce and single parenthood
    • 2.5 Harry Potter
    • 2.6 Harry Potter films
    • 2.7 Success
    • 2.8 Remarriage and family
    • 2.9 Subsequent writing
  • 3 Philanthropy
    • 3.1 Anti-poverty and children's welfare
    • 3.2 Multiple sclerosis
    • 3.3 Other philanthropic work
  • 4 Political views
  • 5 Religious views
  • 6 Legal disputes
  • 7 Relationship with the press
  • 8 Awards and honours
  • 9 Publications
    • 9.1 Harry Potter series
    • 9.2 Other books
    • 9.3 Adult books
    • 9.4 Short story
    • 9.5 Articles
  • 10 References
  • 11 External links

Name

Although she writes under the pen name "J. K. Rowling", pronounced like rolling,[16] her name when her first Harry Potter book was published was simply "Joanne Rowling". Anticipating that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, her publishers demanded that she use two initials, rather than her full name. As she had no middle name, she chose K as the second initial of her pen name, from her paternal grandmother Kathleen Ada Bulgen Rowling.[17][18] She calls herself "Jo" and has said, "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was young, unless they were angry."[19] Following her marriage, she has sometimes used the name Joanne Murray when conducting personal business.[20][21] During the Leveson Inquiry she gave evidence under the name of Joanne Kathleen Rowling.[22]

Biography

Birth and family

Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling (née Volant), on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Bristol.[23] Her mother Anne was half-French, half-Scottish. Her mother's maternal grandfather, Dr. Dugald Campbell, was born in Lamlash on the Isle of Arran.[24] Her mother's paternal grandfather, Louis Volant, was awarded the Croix de Guerre for exceptional bravery in defending the village of Courcelles-le-Comte during the First World War.[25]

Childhood

Rowling's sister Dianne[9] was born at their home when Rowling was 23 months old.[23] The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four.[26] She attended St Michael's Primary School, a school founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More.[27][28] Her headmaster at St Michael's, Alfred Dunn, has been suggested as the inspiration for the Harry Potter headmaster Albus Dumbledore.[29]

As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories, which she would usually then read to her sister. She recalls that "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it. Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee."[16] At the age of nine, Rowling moved to Church Cottage in the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales.[23] When she was a young teenager, her great aunt, who Rowling said "taught classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable kind", gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels.[30] Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling subsequently read all of her books.[31]

She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother, Anne, had worked as a technician in the Science Department.[32] Rowling said of her adolescence, "Hermione [A bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of."[33] Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth owned a turquoise Ford Anglia, which she says inspired the one in her books. "Ron Weasley [Harry Potter's best friend] isn't a living portrait of Sean, but he really is very Sean-ish."[34] Of her musical tastes of the time, she said "My favourite group in the world is The Smiths. And when I was going through a punky phase, it was The Clash."[35] Rowling studied A Levels in English, French and German[36] before reading for a BA in French and Classics at the University of Exeter, which she says was a "bit of a shock" as she "was expecting to be amongst lots of similar people – thinking radical thoughts." Once she made friends with "some like-minded people" she says she began to enjoy herself.[37] After a year of study in Paris, Rowling moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International.[38]

Inspiration and mother's death

After working at Amnesty International in London, Rowling and her then-boyfriend decided to move to Manchester.[23] In 1990, while she was on a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry "came fully formed" into her mind.[39] She told The Boston Globe that "I really don't know where the idea came from. It started with Harry, then all these characters and situations came flooding into my head."[23][39] When she had reached her Clapham Junction flat, she began to write immediately.[23][40]

In December of that year, Rowling's mother died, after ten years suffering from multiple sclerosis.[23] Rowling commented, "I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about Harry Potter."[21] Rowling said this death heavily affected her writing[21][41] and that she introduced much more detail about Harry's loss in the first book, because she knew about how it felt.[42]