Star Facts
- JK’s Harry Potter books have sold more than 400 million copies
- Her heroine is writer and activist Jessica Mitford, whom her daughter is named after
- JK’s favourite band is The Smiths
- Her battle with depression inspired the soul-sucking Dementors of the Harry Potter novels
Joanne Jo Rowling Quotes
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
Biography:
The woman whose incredible imagination brought us the wizarding world of Harry Potter, JK was born in Yate, just outside Bristol. She began writing fantasy stories when she was a little girl and went on to study at the University of Exeter, before moving to London to work as a translator.
JK first conjured the Harry Potter idea while on a delayed train from Manchester to London in 1990. We bet she’s glad she got stuck on that train now. Moving to Portugal to teach English, JK married Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes in 1992, having a daughter, Jessica in 1993. The couple divorced that same year and JK moved to Edinburgh to be with her sister.
Living on the dole, a single mum, trying to save the money she needed to study to become a teacher, JK felt like she’d hit rock bottom. But Harry was her saviour and she wrote constantly in the cafes of Edinburgh until her first book was finished in 1995. The book was turned down by twelve (now completely gutted) publishers before being published by Bloomsbury in 1997.
400 million book sales and a blockbusting Hollywood movie franchise later, and JK is now one of the most famous authors on the planet. Not to mention one of the richest – her fortune now stands at $1 billion. She has since launched the Potter-themed website Pottermore, and remarried, having a son, David, in 2003 and a daughter, Mackenzie in 2005.