Two famous women authors

Come September there is a lot of attention focused on the literary world with the spotlight falling on both the old and the new authors who have reached great heights with their literary works. No matter how old we may become , the attraction for books never fades away Once a book lover always a book lover’ is how it goes and most often the only thing that stands as a barrier is the lack of time due to the hectic lifestyles we live.

What a wonderful ,magical ,mystical world books can create at your fingertips literally. Those of you who do not enjoy reading will never know what you are missing out by distancing yourselves from the world of books.

Today we like to feature two literary greats who have succeeded in weaving their names in golden letters in the fabric of fame - the two British women authors Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowlings .Even though they belong to two different eras ,they both succeeded in capturing the hearts of millions of children around the world with their creative writings .

Joanne “Jo” Rowling
( July31, 1965)

World famous as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the British novelist, uses the pen name J.K.Rowling .Today there is hardly anybody who has not heard of her because the Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies to become the best-selling book series in history and been the basis for a popular series of films, in which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts as well as maintaining creative control by serving as a producer on the final instalmet. In all she wrote seven books and the fans are still hoping that she would come up with another book, someday. Today she has moved from writing children’s stories to writing novels for adults.

On April 12, she announced that her new adult novel The Casual Vacancy would be published in the UK by Little, Brown and Company on September 27 ,2012.

She reached the golden heights of fame with her Harry Potter series and do you know that she conceived the idea for the series on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990? She would never have imagined that this would prove be the turning point in her life. Her life story is not as magical as the stories she writes because she has had to go through a very hard life .

But her “rags to riches” life story is indeed fascinating ; she progressed from living on social security to multi-millionaire status within a short period of five years. As of March 2011[update], when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling’s net worth to be US$1 billion!. What an amazing turn of events .

She was born on July 31,1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England. Her parents are Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling.(née Volant).She has a younger sister named Dianne. As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories, which she would usually then read to her sister.

She attended St Michael’s Primary School, a school founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More. Her headmaster at St Michael’s, Alfred Dunn, has been suggested as the inspiration for the Harry Potter headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Hermione [A bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on herself. She later attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, She studied A Levels in English, French and German before reading for a BA in French and Classics at the University of Exeter.

She married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes on October 16 1992. Their child, Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes (named after Jessica Mitford), was born on July 27 ,1993 in Portugal. Seven years after graduating from university, Rowling saw herself as a failure because her marriage had failed and she was jobless with a dependent child.But she described her failure as liberating. To her rock bottom became a solid foundation on which to rebuilt her life. – as J. K. Rowling,On December 26,2001, She married Neil Michael Murray an anaesthetist, in a private ceremony at her Aberfeldy home. Rowling’s and Murray’s son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, was born on March 24, 2003.Her youngest child, daughter Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, (to whom she dedicated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, )was born on January 23 , 2005.

 In 1995, Rowling finished her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on an old manual typewriter.

Upon the enthusiastic response of Bryony Evens, a reader who had been asked to review the book’s first three chapters, the Fulham-based Christopher Little Literary Agents agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a publisher.

The book was submitted to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected the manuscript. A year later she was finally given the green light (and a £1500 advance) by editor Barry Cunningham from Bloomsbury, a small publishing house in London. The decision to publish Rowling’s book apparently owes much to Alice Newton, the eight-year-old daughter of Bloomsbury’s chairman, who was given the first chapter to review by her father and immediately demanded the next.

She writes under the pen name “J. K. Rowling”, pronounced like” rolling” but did you know that her first Harry Potter book was published under the name “Joanne Rowling”. The reason she did not use her real name was the publishers were worried that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman. And so they ( her publishers) demanded that she use two initials, rather than her full name. As she had no middle name, she chose K as the second initial of her pen name, from her paternal grandmother Kathleen Ada Bulgen Rowling.

Her famous books...

* Philosopher’s Stone ( June 1997) . In October 1998, Scholastic published Philosopher’s Stone in the US under

the title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published in July 1998 .

* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. (December 1999) .

* Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was released simultaneously in the UK and the U.S. on July 8, 2000, and broke sales records in both countries.

* Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released on ….....

* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was released on July16, 2005.

* The seventh and final book ,Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on July 21, 2007 and broke its predecessor’s record as the fastest-selling book of all time. It sold 11 million copies in the first day of release in the United Kingdom and United States.

Enid Mary Blyton

August 11, 1897
November 28 , 1968

Who hasn’t heard of this famous British author also known as Mary Pollock? Perhaps, some of you may not be so familiar with her wonderful books which captivated the children of yesteryear the same way the Harry Potter series written by J.K Rowling mesmerised the present generation of children. She actually did not write just for children, she wrote for all ages even though she gained fame as England’s legendary children’s book writer of all time.

The prolific Enid Blyton as one of the world’s top bestselling authors of the last century, is noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters. She wrote about 120 novels, more than 700 other books and and an estimation of 10,000 stories. What a collection!

Her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies. Has anyone of you heard of a lovable character called Noddy ? It is one of Blyton’s most widely known characters intended for early years readers. However, her most popular books were aimed at young readers in which children have their own adventures with minimal assistance from adults . They came as a series and included the Famous Five (21 novels, 1942–1963, based on four children and their dog), the Five Find- Outers and Dog, (15 novels, 1943–1961, where five children regularly outwit the local police) as well as The Secret Seven (15 novels, 1949–1963, a society of seven children who solve various mysteries).

Her work involves children’s adventure stories, and fantasy, sometimes involving magic. Her books were and still are enormously popular throughout the Commonwealth and across most of the globe. Her work has been translated into nearly 90 languages.

Enid Blyton’s literary output was of an estimated 800 books over roughly 40 years. Chorion Limited of London now owns and handles the intellectual properties and character brands of Blyton’s Noddy and the well known series the Famous Five.

Enid Blyton was born on August 11 , 1897 at 354 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, London, England,She was the eldest child of Thomas Carey Blyton (1870–1920), a salesman of cutlery, and Theresa Mary Harrison Blyton (1874–1950). The other two siblings were boys named Hanly (1899–1983) and Carey (1902–1976) .She adored her father and was devastated when he parted from her mother with whom she did not have a good relationship.

 She was educated at St. Christopher’s School in Beckenham,from 1907 to 1915 and left school as head girl. She enjoyed physical activities along with some academic work, but not maths.

Apart from the popular children’s books she also wrote hundreds of novels, story collections and non-fiction books also for children as well as numerous books on nature and Biblical themes . She also filled a large number of magazine pages, particularly the long-running Sunny Stories which were immensely popular among younger children.

She used a pseudonym Mary Pollock for a few titles (middle name plus first married name). The last volumes in her most famous series were published in 1963. Many books still appeared after that, but were mainly story books made up from re-cycled work. Her short stories were first published, for the most part, in Sunny Stories, an Enid Blyton magazine, or other children’s papers.

On August 28 ,1924 she married Major Hugh Alexander Pollock, DSO (1888–1971), editor of the book department in the publishing firm of George Newnes, which published two of her books that year. The couple moved to Bourne End, Buckinghamshire (Peterswood in her books).Eventually they moved to a house in Beaconsfield, named Green Hedges by Blyton’s readers following a competition in Sunny Stories. They had two children: Gillian Mary Baverstock and Imogen Mary Smallwood. She was afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease, and was moved into a nursing home three months before her death; she died at the Greenways Nursing Home, London, on November 28 ,1968, aged 71 years and was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium where her ashes remain.

Some of her books

Her books were generally split into three types. One involves ordinary children in extraordinary situations, having adventures, solving crimes, or otherwise finding themselves in unusual circumstances. Examples include the Famous Five and Secret Seven, and the Adventure series.The second and more conventional type is the boarding school story; the plots of these have more emphasis on the day-to-day life at school.

This is the world of the midnight feast, the practical joke, and the social interaction of the various types of character. Examples of this type are the Malory Towers stories, the St Clare’s series, and the Naughtiest Girl books and are typical of the times — many comics of the day also contained similar types of story.

The third type is the fantastical. Children are typically transported into a magical world in which they meet fairies, goblins, elves, pixies, or other fantasy creatures.

Examples of this type are the Wishing-Chair books and The Faraway Tree. In many of her short stories, toys are shown to come alive when humans are not around.

The Five Find-Outers (Also known as Enid Blyton’s Mystery series)

The Famous Five series, The Adventure series, The Noddy books,The Secret Seven series,The Malory Towers series,The St. Clare’s series,The Wishing-Chair series,The Magic Faraway Tree series, The Barney Mystery series,The Circus series,The Mistletoe Farm series,The Naughtiest Girl series,The Young Adventurers Series,The Adventurous Four Series,The Family Series,The Family Adventure Series,The Secret Series,The Red Story Book, The Green Story Book, The Blue Story Book, Bedtime Stories are some other books by Enid Blyton.

Caption Enid Blyton’s former house “Old Thatch” near Bourne End.