J K Rowling and
her work

J K (Joanne Kathleen)
Rowling was born in July
1965 at Yate General
Hospital in England and
grew up in Chepstow,
Gwent where she went to Wyedean Comprehensive.

Jo left Chepstow for Exeter
University, where she
earned a French and
Classics degree, her course
including one year in Paris.
As a postgraduate she moved to London and
worked as a researcher at
Amnesty International
among other jobs. She
started writing the Harry
Potter series during a delayed Manchester to
London King’s Cross train journey, and during the
next five years, outlined
the plots for each book
and began writing the first
novel.

Jo then moved to northern
Portugal, where she taught
English as a foreign
language. She married in
October 1992 and gave
birth to a daughter Jessica in 1993. When the
marriage ended, she and
Jessica returned to the UK
to live in Edinburgh, where
Harry Potter & the
Philosopher’s Stone was eventually completed.

Jo married Dr. Neil Murray
in 2001, and a brother for
Jessica, David, was born in
2003. A sister, Mackenzie,
followed in 2005.

The books

*Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone was
published by Bloomsbury
Children's Books in June
1997 and as Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer ’s Stone in the US by Arthur A. Levine
Books/Scholastic in
September 1998.

*Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets, was
published in July 1998
(June 2, 1999 in the USA)
and was No. 1 in the adult
hardback bestseller charts for a month after
publication.

*Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban was
published on 8th July 1999
(September 8, 1999 in
America) to worldwide
acclaim and massive press attention. The book spent
four weeks at No.1 in the
adult hardback bestseller
charts, while Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone
simultaneously topped the paperback charts. In the US
the first three Harry Potter
books occupied the top
three spots on numerous
adult bestseller lists.

*Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire, the fourth book in
the series, was published in
Britain, the USA, Canada
and Australia 8th July 2000
with a record first print run of 1 million copies for
the UK and 3.8 million for
the US. It quickly broke all
records for the greatest
number of books sold on
the first weekend of publication.

*Harry Potter and the Order
of the Phoenix, the fifth
book in the series, was
published in Britain, the
USA, Canada and Australia
on 21st June 2003. Published in paperback on
10th July 2004, it is the
longest in the series – 766 pages - and broke the
records set by Harry Potter
& the Goblet of Fire as the
fastest selling book in
history.

*Harry Potter and the Half-
Blood Prince, the sixth
book in the series, was
published in the UK, US and
other English-speaking
countries on 16th July 2005 and also achieved
record sales.

*Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows, the
seventh and final book in
the series, was published in
the UK, US and other
English speaking countries on 21st July 2007. The
book is the fastest selling
book in the UK and USA,
and sales are well over 400
million copies worldwide.

J K Rowling has also
written two small volumes,
which appear as the titles
of Harry ’s school books within the novels:
*Fantastic Beasts and Where
to Find Them and
*Quidditch Through The
Ages were published by
Bloomsbury Children ’s Books and Scholastic in
March 2001 in aid of Comic
Relief.
*The Tales of Beedle the
Bard, another charitable
book, was published by
and for the Children ’s High Level Group in 2008.

The Harry Potter books are
distributed in over 200
territories and are
translated into 69
languages.



Honours and
Awards

J K Rowling has received
the following honours and
awards:
-Order of the British Empire
(OBE), 2001
-Chevalier de la Legion
d’Honneur: France, 2009
-Prince of Asturias Award
for Concord, Spain, 2003
-The Edinburgh Award,
2008

Honorary Degrees from the
University of Exeter,
University of St Andrews,
Napier University,
University of Edinburgh,
Dartmouth College, USA, Harvard University, USA,
University of Aberdeen.

Commencement speaker,
Harvard University, USA,
2008
James Joyce Award,
University College Dublin,
2008

Author of the Year and
Lifetime Achievement
Award, British Book
Awards,1999 and 2008
Booksellers Association
Author of the Year, 1998 and 1999
W H Smith Fiction Award,
2004
Outstanding Achievement
Award, South Bank Show
Awards, 2008 Blue Peter Gold Badge,
awarded 2007


CHARITIES

J K Rowling supports a
wide number of charities
and causes, some of which
you can find more
information on in this
section.

She has set up the Volant
Charitable Trust, which
supports a wide number of
causes related to social
deprivation and associated
problems, particularly as they affect women and
children. The Trust has
funded a variety of
projects in the UK and
abroad. It also supports
research into the causes and treatment of Multiple
Sclerosis. www.volanttrust.com

As a postgraduate, Jo
worked at the London
office of Amnesty
International, doing
research into human rights
abuses in Francophone Africa. www.amnesty.org.uk

For seven years she was an
Ambassador of One Parent
Families, now called
Gingerbread, a charity
working with lone parents
and their children. In 2007 she took an honorary
position as President for
the charity. www.gingerbread.org.uk

Since 1999 J K Rowling has
been a supporter of the
Multiple Sclerosis Society
Scotland, for nine of those
years as its Patron. Having
lost her mother to MS at the age of 45, this is one of the
causes closest to Jo’s heart and her support has
included planning and
hosting fundraising events,
directly lobbying
politicians, writing articles
and giving interviews to raise awareness of this
very Scottish disease, and
contributing significant
funds for research in
Scotland, including
research establishments in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
She has recently stepped
down as Patron of the
charity but continues to
fund MS research directly. www.mssocietyscotland.org.uk

In 2005 J K Rowling co-
founded the Children ’s High Level Group (CHLG) with
Baroness Emma Nicholson
MEP, inspired by a press
report she read about
children in caged beds in
institutions in the Czech Republic. This charity aims
to make life better for
young people in care, in
Eastern Europe and
ultimately all over the
world. In 2007 J K Rowling auctioned for CHLG a copy
of one of the seven special
editions of The Tales of
Beedle the Bard, which
raised £1.95 million. In
December 2008 the book was widely published in aid
of the charity and became
the fastest-selling book of
that year. In February
2010 the UK-based arm of
the charity became Lumos. www.lumos.org.uk

Jo has supported a wide
range of other causes and
charities, including Comic
Relief, for which she has
written two short books;
The Maggie’s Centres for Cancer Care, of which she
was a Patron for several
years; the UK Labour Party,
to which she donated £1
million in 2008, and
Médecins Sans Frontières, in aid of which she performed
in an event with Stephen
King and John Irving in
New York in 2006.