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Harry's "Mom"

© Megan Drummond

Joanne Kathleen Rowling, better known as J.K, was born in Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire, England, on July 31, 1965. There is not much written about her family except that she has one sister, Di, who is two years younger.

J.K. and her family moved twice while she was a child. After the first move, the Rowlings lived next door to a family with a last name that J.K. found very interesting. J.K. never forgot the children of the family or the last name that is now one of the most recognized names around – Potter.

When she was nine years old, J.K.’s family moved again, to Tutshill. Here, J.K. attended grade school and then Wyedean Comprehensive. She describes herself as being “shy and freckly with no natural athletic ability, but a great love of literature” while she was at Wyedean. When she graduated, J.K. went on to Exeter and studied French after her parents had encouraged her into what they believed would be an exciting career as a bilingual secretary.

After graduating from Exeter, J.K. quickly learned that she wasn’t secretary material. In her own words, she is “the worst secretary ever, very disorganized.” She found it increasingly difficult to remain attentive during meetings and began to jot down story ideas instead of taking notes from the meetings.

When she was 26 years old, J.K. moved to Portugal to be an English teacher. She said many times that she loved teaching. She would often teach her classes during the afternoons and evenings, leaving her mornings free to write. It was during this time that she began to work on a story about a wizard.

It was also during this time that J.K. met and married a Portuguese journalist. Her daughter was born soon after in 1993. Shortly after Jessica’s birth, however, the marriage ended in divorce. J.K. and her infant daughter moved to a small apartment in Edinburgh, Scotland, to be near her sister. Now divorced and living on public assistance, J.K. would take her daughter to cafes and restaurants where they could stay warm while Jessica napped and her mother wrote.

J.K. requested a grant from the Scottish Arts Council to finish her novel and was eventually given it. When the novel was completed, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was rejected several times before it was bought by Bloomsbury in the UK for the equivalent of $4000.

J.K. had taken a job as a French teacher during this time to maintain a good life for herself and Jessica. When Scholastic Press bought the American rights to the first Harry Potter book, J.K. received enough money to give up teaching and write full time.