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J K Rowling

Famous English people

Joanne (J K) Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Yate, near Bristol. Her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when Rowling was 15; she died in the early 1990s.

Rowling attended Wyedean Comprehensive school, where she told stories to her fellow students. She studied French at Exeter University, spending a year in Paris as part of her studies. After college she moved to London to work for Amnesty International as a researcher and bilingual secretary. It was during this period that she had the idea for a story about a young boy who attends a school of wizardry, during a four-hour train trip between King's Cross, London and Scotland. According to her, by the time she reached her destination, she had the characters and a good part of the plot for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in her head. She began working on the story during her lunch hours.

Rowling then moved to Oporto, Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. While there she married Portuguese TV journalist Jorge Arantes on October 16, 1992. They had one child, a daughter named Jessica before their divorce in 1995. On her divorce she came to Edinburgh with her daughter, planning to live near her sister. Unemployed and living on welfare, she completed the novel, doing some of the work in an Edinburgh cafe as there was no heating in her home.

The Harry Potter series of books written by JK Rowling captured the imaginations of young and old alike. This season why not purchase some Harry Potter gear at our Halloween costumes store? While you are there check out all the great childrens costumes and get costumes for Mom and Dad too. Having the family dress up in costumes like the characters in Rowling’s novels would make for a great holiday!

After Harry

Rowling's publisher, Bloomsbury, wanted to use initials on the cover of the Harry Potter books, suggesting that if they used an obviously female name, the target group of young boys might be reluctant to buy them. Rowling chose to adopt her grandmother's middle name, Kathleen.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was a huge success, and she has thus far published four sequels. The sales made her a multi-millionaire, and in 2001, she purchased a luxurious 19th century mansion, Killiechassie House, on the banks of the River Tay in Perthshire, Scotland, where she married her second husband, Dr. Neil Murray.

The Harry Potter series is expected to run to seven volumes, one for each year Harry spends in school. Five of these have already been published. The fifth book, titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was delayed by an unsuccessful plagiarism suit directed towards her by rival author Nancy Stouffer. Rowling took some time off from writing at this point, because during the process of writing the fourth book, she felt her workload was too heavy. She said that at one point, she had considered breaking her arm to get out of writing, because the pressure on her was too much. After forcing her publishers to drop her deadline, she enjoyed three years of quiet writing, commenting that she spent some time working on something else that she might return to when she is finished with the Harry Potter series. The fifth book was released on June 21, 2003.

On December 20, 2004, she announced that the sixth Harry Potter book would be released on July 16, 2005.

Harry Potter books

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It uses material from the Wikipedia article "J. K. Rowling".