[by Sheila Lennon]

'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros

[[June 7, 2002 • Last week's weblog]]

[June 3, 2002]

[From the Sunday Herald]

[Sarah Brown and JK Rowling: why we want you to help single parents]: The Glasgow Sunday Herald (U.K.) reports, "Sarah Brown, wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a successful public relations consultant, and JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, have collaborated to compile {Magic}, a collection of short stories by some of Britain's best authors, to raise £1 million for the National Council for One-Parent Families."

Rowling attempts to debunk media attempts to romanticize her leap from welfare mother to mega-author:

"Leaving my ex-husband meant leaving my job and returning to Britain with two suitcases of possessions. I knew perfectly well that I was walking into poverty, but I believed that it would be only a matter of months before I was back on my feet.

"Poverty is a lot like childbirth -- you know it's going to hurt before it happens, but you'll never know how much until you've experienced it. Some newspaper articles have come close to romanticising the time I spent on income support because the well-worn cliche of the writer starving in the garret is so much more picturesque than the bitter reality of living in poverty with a child.'

"I had a talent I could exercise without financial outlay. Anyone thinking of using me as an example of how single parents can break out of the poverty trap might as well point at Oprah Winfrey and declare that there is no more racism in America."