J. K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling is a British author, best known for the bestselling children’s fantasy phenomenon that is the Harry Potter series. Written in Edinburgh whilst Rowling was on benefits, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997 and became a global mega-seller, spawning six sequels from 1998 to 2007 as well as a highly successful film franchise and vast amounts of assorted merchandise. The magical adventures of a young wizard and his epic battle against the evil Lord Voldemort have had an incalculable impact on all children’s literature since.

In addition to books related to the Harry Potter universe such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, Rowling penned the adult novel, The Casual Vacancy in 2012 as well as the Cormoran Strike crime novels, under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. 2020 saw the appearance of her ‘political fairy tale’ The Ickabog, first published in instalments online during the national coronavirus lockdown.

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J.K. Rowling: The Full Story

‘The best letter of my life, I read it eight times.’ – J.K. Rowling on being accepted by Christopher Little Literary Agents

Famously rejected by no less than eight publishers before ultimately being picked up by Bloomsbury, the genesis of what was to become Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is almost as well-documented as the books themselves.

Born in Gloucestershire in 1965, J.K. Rowling studied French and Classics at The University of Exeter and later moved to Portugal, returning to the UK in 1993. Although the basic threads of the Harry Potter universe surfaced in 1990, it took Rowling another six years to complete the first novel, famously writing the book in cafés around Edinburgh. A chance submission to London literary agent Christopher Little set the ball in motion toward its eventual publication on June 26, 1997.

Although by now of course a global phenomenon, those early days were fuelled by sheer word-of-mouth enthusiasm, with readers and booksellers alike utterly enraptured by this new, enchanting world. Although we generally fight shy of claiming credit in anyone’s success, Waterstones Edinburgh was amongst the first of bookshops to really grasp Harry Potter’s potential and to this day its booksellers have vivid memories of hosting those initial spearhead events.

Rowling went on to write another six full-length Harry Potter books and two accompanying volumes to support the charity Comic Relief - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages. Following the conclusion of the series in 2007 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, fears that those magical doors had closed for good proved groundless, with Rowling penning the exquisite The Tales of Beedle the Bard, initially available only as seven impossibly-rare copies. Ultimately that too saw print proper with proceeds going to charity.

In 2016, we had yet more from the wizarding world, with Rowling breaking new ground with the release of her first new Harry Potter story for nearly a decade, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, adapted as a play by Jack Thorne for The Palace Theatre with books released in Waterstones shops around the country on the last stroke of midnight on 30th July 2016. This was closely followed by the release of Rowling’s original screenplay for the film adaptation of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. 

Writing for J.K. Rowling is not, however, confined to the worlds of wizardry and magic, finding considerable critical and commercial success in her 2012 novel The Casual Vacancy, an entirely earthly tale of social injustice. Few however were aware that a crime debut published early in the following year and written by a certain ‘Robert Galbraith’ was Rowling herself, intrigued by the notion of writing as a completely different persona. By 2014 the secret was out and The Cuckoo’s Calling – the first book in a series of detective mysteries featuring private investigator Cormoran Strike – was then to be followed by The Sikworm and Career of Evil, the latter appearing in 2015.

Effortlessly shifting from the fantasies of Harry Potter through to the pages of adult fiction, crime and now onward to stage and screen, the impossibility to predict the mercurial mind of J.K. Rowling makes what might come all the more exciting. ‘I feel like I’ve got happier and happier,’ she told the Guardian in 2015. ‘I feel like I’m hitting my stride.’