Joanne J K Rowling

Early Life of J.K.Rowling

Joanne Kathleen Rowling, popularly known as J.K.Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling on July 31, 1965 in England. She has a sister named Dianne. She attended the St. Michael’s Primary School and later moved to Wyedean School and College for secondary education. After a year of studying in Paris, she moved to London to work for Amnesty International as a researcher and bilingual secretary.

Rowling was greatly affected by her mother’s death, which made her move to Portugal and she took up teaching as a profession. She married Jorge Arantes in Portugal and their daughter Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes was born in July 1993. After the separation from her husband, in December 1993, she moved with her daughter to Scotland, where she wanted to pursue teaching. It was at this time that she started writing novels.

J.K.Rowling and The Harry Potter Brand

J.K.Rowling’s first book in the Harry Potter series, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was published in 1997 by Bloomsbury. This novel won the acclaimed ‘British Book Award’ for ‘Children’s Book of the Year’. This novel was published in the US by Scholastic as ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’, a change which Rowling disliked. The sequel, ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’, was published in July 1998. Her third novel in the series, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’, made Rowling the first person to win the Smarties Prize for the third time in a row. This book also won the ‘Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year Award’. The fourth book named ‘Harry potter and the Goblet of Fire’ was released in July 2000 simultaneously in the US and the UK. This book smashed all previous literary sales records and also earned Rowling the ‘Author of the Year’ award in the 2000 British Book Awards.

‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, the fifth book in the series, was published after a gap of three years. Rowling was speculated to be suffering from writer’s block during this gap. Though she initially denied it, she later accepted that she was too exhausted when she completed the book. The sixth in the series, ‘Harry potter and the Half-Blood Prince’, released in July 2005, also broke sales records by selling nine million copies in the first 24 hours of its release. In 2006, this book received the ‘Book of the Year’ prize at the British book Awards. The final book in the Harry potter series, ‘Harry potter and the Deathly Hallows’ was released in July 2007 and it became the fastest selling book of all time, selling 11 million copies on the day of its release in the UK and the US. During the period of writing the last book, a documentary was filmed on J.K.Rowling. Titled ‘J.K.Rowling…. A Year in the Life’, it was aired in Britain on December 30, 2007.

The Harry Potter brand is currently worth approximately $15 billion. The books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history and they have been translated into as many as 65 languages worldwide. The Harry Potter books have been successfully filmed by Warner Bros. The first six books have been released as movies so far and the final book is likely to be filmed and released as two segments.

Life of J.K.Rowling after Harry Potter

J.K.Rowling has been named by Forbes as the first person to become a US dollar billionaire by writing books. In 2008, she was named the 144th richest person in Britain by the Sunday Times Rich List. Rowling married Neil Michael Murray in December 2001 and had a son, David Gordon Rowling Murray in March 2003. Her youngest child, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray was born in January 2005. J.K.Rowling has received a number of honorary degrees from various universities and the French Legion d’honneur award in 2009.

J.K.Rowlings’s Philanthropic Work

J.K.Rowling’s philanthropic work includes the establishment of the Volant Charitable Trust in 2000. The funds from this trust are used for combating poverty and social inequality. She also supports one parent families, organizations that aid children, and research related to multiple sclerosis through the trust. Rowling has also written some books to raise funds for the cause of anti-poverty.

JK Rowling Bio

JK Rowling Books

JK Rowling Awards