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| Sunday, 24 October 2004 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Bringing the magic of reading back into your lives It was amazing how a 'bulky story book with many a mythical character' could suddenly change the reading habits of millions of children around the world. Both parents and children were reading the same book and eagerly waiting to find out what the next adventure of their hero is.
Joanne Kathleen Rowling is the author of the widely popular Harry Potter series which is about the experiences of a young boy with magical powers, coming of age in a school of wizards and witches. Born on July 31, 1965 in England, Rowling as a child was "short, squat with very thick glasses like bottle bottoms" - that's why Harry wears glasses. In her own words, Rowling was a "mixture of insecurities and very bossy. Very bossy to my sister but quiet with strangers, very bookish. Terrible at school. The whole thing about Harry being able to fly so well is probably total wish fulfilment". Rowling wrote her first story when she was about six. The story was about a rabbit called Rabbit, which was very imaginative. Her favourite subjects at school were English and Languages.After studying French in university, she embarked on a short-lived career as a bilingual secretary. In 1990, at the age of 26, she moved to Portugal to teach English, working afternoons and nights and spending her mornings writing. "I always wanted to be a writer as far back as I can remember and I've always been writing though I had nothing published before Harry Potter. I'm a real night owl and my best ideas come at midnight. I didn't need to be encouraged, I was always writing". While Rowling was in Portugal, she met and married a Portuguese journalist and in 1993 her daughter was born. It was during this time while she was stuck in a train between Manchester and London that the concept of Harry and Hogwarts first came to her. After her marriage ended in divorce, Rowling and her daughter moved to Edinborough, Scotland where Rowling continued to write the first Harry Potter novel, having set herself a goal to finish the book before starting work as a French teacher.After a number of rejections, Rowling eventually sold 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', which was published in the UK in 1997 and a year later renamed as 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' and published in the USA. In late December 2001, Rowling married the anaesthetist Dr. Neil Murray in Scotland. Her second child, a son, was born in 2003. Rowling plans to release seven books for the series (five books published so far), each one chronicling a year in the life of Harry and his adventures at Hogwarts school. The stories themselves get progressively darker as Harry and his friends mature, tackling such themes as civil rights and death. "Read, read, read, read and then read some more. It's the only way to learn what makes good writing and then, practise loads and loads and loads and loads....and resign yourself to the fact that you will have to throw away nine tenths of what you write at first. And then, one day, you'll write what you really like, and you'll go from there". "If someone asked for my recipe for happiness, it would be finding out what you love doing most in the world. I consider myself very lucky indeed to be able to support myself by writing. It's going to be very difficult to leave it. I mean, I do look forward to a post-Harry Potter era in my life, because some of the things that go along with this are not that much fun, but at the same time, I dread leaving Harry," Rowling says. Compiled by Chamitha Kuruppu |
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| Politics | Produced by Lake House |
Millions of Harry Potter fans around the globe should be grateful to
J.K. Rowling, the creator of an international reading club for once again
bringing the habit of reading into their lives.
