J.K. Rowling

Joanne “Jo” Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England. Before Rowling had her first book published, her publisher, Bloomsbury, was afraid that the target audience of young boys would be unenthusiastic about reading a book by a female author. So Bloomsbury requested that she use two initials instead of her first name. Since Joanne had no middle name, she legally added Kathleen as her middle name and then used J.K. Rowling as her pen name.

Jo spent the first four years of her life in Yate, Gloucestershire, England where she resided with her parents and her younger sister, Diane known as Di. She then moved to the nearby village of Winterbourne. At age nine Jo and her family moved to the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales. As a child she enjoyed being outdoors roaming the countryside with her sister. Jo attended primary school at St Michael's Primary School and secondary school at Wyedean School and College. She then read for a B.A. in French and Classics at the University of Exeter and also completed a year of study in Paris. She then moved to London where she worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International. She has been awarded honorary degrees from St Andrews University, the University of Edinburgh, Napier University, the University of Aberdeen, and Harvard University. Although she has homes in Kensington, West London and Perth and Kinross, Scotland, she currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

J.K. Rowling receiving an honorary degree

In 1990 during a four hour train delay, Jo got the idea for the Harry Potter Series. She immediately began writing. Her mother died in December of 1990 after a ten year battle with Multiple Sclerosis. Jo then moved to Porto, Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. While there, she met and married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes. Their only child, Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes was born on July 27, 1993 in Portugal. They separated in November 1993, with Jo and her daughter moving to Edinburgh, Scotland. During this period, Jo suffered from clinical depression, which gave her the idea for the dementors in her book. On December 26, 2001 Jo married Dr. Neil Murray. They are the parents of David Gordon Rowling Murray born March 24, 2003 and Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray born January 23, 2005. Jo is an Officer in the Order of the British Empire.

There are many connections between people J.K. Rowling interacted with growing up and characters in her books. For example, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter Series, is based on Alfred Dunn, Jo’s elderly headmaster at St. Michael's. Another example of this is Ron Weasley, who is based on Sean Harris, Jo’s best friend. There are also some connections between Jo’s real life experiences and her writing. An example of this connection is when her mother died. This greatly impacted her focus on Harry’s loss of his parents.

I think J.K. Rowling is a great writer.