Like that of her own character, Harry Potter,J.K.Rowling's life has the luster of a fairy tale. Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Endinburgh flat with her little daughter, Rowling
wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a cafe during her daughter's naps--and it was Harry Potter that rescued her. First, the Scottish Ants Council
gave her a grant to finish the book. After its sale to Bloomsbury(UK) and Scholastic Books, theaccolades began to pile up. Harry Potter won The British
book Awards Children's Book of the year, and the Smarties Prize, and rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic.
A graduate of Exeter University , a teacher, and then unemployed, single parent, Rowling wrote Harry Potter when "I was very low, and I had to achieve something. Without the challenge, I would have gone stark raving mad." But Rowling has always written books, and her first book was called Rabbit. "I was about six, and I haven't stopped scribbling since."
The following is an abstract from what J.K.Rowling wrote about herself. From which we might keep track with the growth of the person who gave birth to the living ambition of the world, Harry Potter and the Little Wizard.
I wrote a lot in my teens, but I never showed any of it to my friends, …I
went to Exeter Univers straight after school, where I studied French. This was a big mistake. I had listened too hard to my parents, who thoughtlanguages would lead to a great career as a bilingual secretary. Unfortunately I am one of the most disorganized people in the world and, as I later proved, the worst secretary ever.
WhenI was twenty-six I gave up on offices completely and went aboard to teach English as a foreign language. I loved teaching English, and as I worked afternoons and evenings,I had morningsfreefor writing. This was particularly good news as I had nowstarted my third novel. The new book was about a boy who found out he was a
Wizard and was sent off to wizardschool. When I came backfrom Portugal half a suitcase was full of papers covered with short stories about Harry Potter. I came to live in Edinburgh with my very small daughter, I set myself a deadline; I would finish the Harry novel before starting work as a French teacher, and try to get it published.
It was a year after finishing the book before a publisher bought it. The moment when I found out that Harry would be published was one of the best of my life.
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