Page Title

Biography

Joanne Rowling was born on July 31st, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England. Her sister, Di, was born 2 years later. Rowling can remember telling stories from when she was 5 or 6 years old and writing down her first story about a rabbit called 'Rabbit' who got the measles and was visited by friends including a giant bee called 'Miss Bee'.

She moved twice while growing up. The first move was from Yate to Winterbourne, just outside Bristol. In Winterbourne she was friends with a brother and sister whose surname was Potter. She says she always liked the name, and preferred it to her own because the children always made annoying jokes about rolling pins!

The second move was when she was nine years old. Her family moved to Tutshill near Chepstow in the Forest of Dean. After attending Tutshill Primary School, she went to Wyedean Comprehensive School.. She describes herself as having been 'quite freckly, short-sighted and rubbish at sports'. Her favourite subject was English and foreign languages. She used to tell stories to her friends - usually involving them all doing heroic and daring deeds that they wouldn't dare to do in real life.

She attended Exeter University and studied French. Her parents said that this could lead to a great career as a bilingual secretary. On graduating from Exeter she spent a few years as 'the worst secretary ever'.

In 1990, at the age of 26, she moved to Portugal to teach English. She
says that she loved teaching English. She taught in the afternoons and
evenings, leaving the mornings free for writing. At this time she was starting
work on her third novel (the first two were never finished because she says they were 'very bad'). The new book was about a boy who found out he was a wizard and was sent off to wizard school.

While in Portugal she met and married a Portuguese journalist. Their
daughter, Jessica, was born in 1993. After her marriage ended in divorce,
Rowling and her daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to be close to her younger sister, Di.

Rowling set herself a goal - to finish the Harry Potter novel before starting work as a French teacher and, to try and get it published. She wrote at a café table while Jessica was napping. She did have paper and pens and didn't use paper napkins as rumoured.

The Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant to finish the book and, after a
number of rejections, she eventually sold Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone $4,000 to Bloomsbury Publishing Company.

Rowling did teach French. Her students used to tease her with the first line of the theme from Rawhide "Rolling, rolling, rolling, keep those wagons rolling...')

A few months later Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Press bought the
American rights for enough money that she was able to give up teaching.

The book was published in the UK by Bloomsbury Children's Books in June
1997 (at the time of writing 1st editions of this book are on the market for
upwards of 12,000 UK pounds/ USA $20,000!). Thereafter the accolades
began to pile up. Harry Potter won The British Book Awards Children's Book
of the Year, and the Smarties Prize.

In the USA, the title of the book was changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The book was published in the USA in September 1998 by Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Press.

The sequel, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets was published in the
UK in July 1998 and in the USA in June 1999. The third book Harry Potter
and The Prisoner of Azkaban was published in the UK in July 1999 and in
the USA in September 1999.

In 1999 Rowling became an international literary sensation when the first
three instalments of the Harry Potter series took over the top three positions on the New York Times bestsellers list.

By Summer 2000, the first three books had sold over 35 million copies in 35
languages and earned approximately $480 million.

In July 2000, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire had a first printing of 5.3
million copies with advance orders of over 1.8 million.

The fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is supposed to be available early 2002.

Rowling plans seven books in the series with each one chronicling a year in
the life of Harry Potter at the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The middle name "Kathleen" was added after the publisher's request for a longer name. It is Rowling's choice, being the name of her grandmother.