Monday 19 December 2011

J.K. Rowling

Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in United Kingdom in 1965. She is the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. These books books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards and sold more than 400 million copies. 


Before publishing her first book, Bloomsbury, her publisher thought that perhaps some young people would not buy books written by a woman, so they advised her to use two initials.

When she was a child she enjoyed writing fantasy stories and she often told these to her sister.
She started to write Harry Potter when she was delayed in a train between Manchester and King's Cross. She usually writes for ten hours a day.


In 2001, Rowling bought a luxurious nineteenth century house near the Tay River in Aberfeldy, Scotland. She also has a home in Merchiston, Edinburgh, and a mansion worth 49 million dollars in Kensington, West London,  in a street with private security all day.

Forbes has named her as the first person to earn 1,000 million by writing books, the second richest female artist and the person number 1062 with the most money in the world. The Sunday Times Rich List ranked Rowling as the 144th richest person in Britain.

Rowling has received an honorary degrees from the University of St. Andrews, Edinburgh University, Napier University and the University of Aberdeen. 

In 2003 in Oviedo, Spain, she became the first female writer to be awarded the Prince of Asturias for Concord.


Rowling has a difficult relation with the press. In 2001 published some photos that she had not authorized of her daughter and her on a beach in Mauritius, published in the magazine OK!. Rowling has said that she particularly dislikes the British tabloid the Daily Mail, which made references to a stalker Rowling insists does not exist, and conducted interviews with her estranged ex-husband.


In 2000 Rowling founded the Volant Charitable Trust, which annually donates 5,1 million dollars to combat poverty, social inequality, and to help single parents and sclerosis research.


Rowling is now the president of the One Parent Families, a charity that helps single parents, because she was a single mother too. 


In 2008, the eve of the Labour Party Conference, Rowling announced that she had donated 1 million of dollars to this political party to help poor families and did not win the Conservative Party nomination.