The life story of my favorite author: JK Rowling

The person who made fantasy come to life, the one who is the most famous person in the world, the one who has movies and plays based on her books. Yes! It is JK Rowling! The famous author of the Harry Potter series.

Joanne Rowling (pen name JK Rowling) was born on July 31st, 1965 in the United Kingdom. Joanne Rowling went by Jo for short and she shared her birthday with a beloved book character Harry Potter. Her parents, Peter and Anne wished for a son and wanted to name their child Simon John. When Jo was born, her parents were disappointed to have a girl. They dressed her up as a boy, dressing her up in blue and cutting her hair very short something she would jokingly call “Child abuse”. She was the older sister of Diane Rowling and the daughter of an aircraft engineer and her mother was a science technician.  

The characters and plots in her books are inspired by her own life. Jo grew up in a house like Harry Potter and even had a cupboard under the stairs, something she included in her book and Quite large fields including the Forest of Dean. The Forest of Dean of course popped up a few times in the Harry Potter series. The character that Rowling identifies with the most is named Hermionie Granger. She often heard her parents recounting the story of how they met at Kings Cross station. Rowling said that she saw the station as a romantic place because of this. The reason why it’s like a big part in the books. She had a grandmother who she greatly disliked. Joe actually based Aunt Marge’s character on her grandma Frida.  Jo had a neighbor whose name was Ian Potter. A person she used to play with.  Their sisters would play together dressing up as witches and wizards and would make potions, and casting spells.  Jo had a teacher who taught chemistry and she thought he was very strict and the worst teacher. She then took inspiration from him as Severus Snape the potions master in Harry Potter. As she grew up, she had a good friendship with a boy named Shawn. Inspired by him she created the character of Weasley. When he got his driver’s license, she drove with him in a Ford Angelia.  When Jo was 15, her mother got sick with Multiple sclerosis. As there was no treatment, Jo had to watch her mother suffer and was traumatized. Later she went to the University of Exeter. Rowling got one of her essays published while in university. After she graduated, Jo worked as a bilingual secretary. One day, when Jo was riding on a train, she came up with the idea of the book series Harry potter. She wrote everything down as soon as she got home and after six months of writing, her mother passed away which made Rowling very devastated. Sometime later, Jk Rowling moved to Portugal to work as an English teacher. She then met a man Jorge Orontes who was a tv journalist and they got married. JK Rowling had a miscarriage that made Jo really sad and badly affected her. She then gave birth to their daughter Jessica. Jo and Jorge’s relationship did not last long, and they got divorced. She then fled back to London with her only hope, her daughter Jessica. Jk then fell into a deep depression and said this about her feelings.

“It’s a numbness, A coldness, and an inability to believe that you will feel happy again, or that you could feel lighthearted again. All the color drained out of  life” 

This turned out to be an inspiration for the creatures that she created in Harry Potter called Dementors.Jo describes Dementors as ,’the  ghostly creatures that guard the Azkaban prison and sucks out your soul and makes you feel like you’ll never feel happy again’.

Since chocolate makes people feel better,  she even included it in her book to make people feel better after a dementor attack. With the help from therapists, her depression got better but she was pretty nervous to read in crowds.

Rowling would go to a cafe called Nicholsons owned by her brother in law where she wrote huge parts of her book in the cafe. Jo met Neal Murray and the two got married in 2001. Jo had 2 kids from this marriage that she named Mackenzie and David

When JK Rowling published her book, it made 5 million copies in 24 hours. Making it the fastest-selling book of all time. After her first book got published in 1997, several parents in schools complained about the book saying it gave kids trauma and was a bad influence because of all the violence and deaths. It got worse when she started getting death threats and her books were going to be banned in all schools. This didn’t stop her from writing books.“The half-blood prince” again broke all sales records selling nine million copies in 24 hours.  It even received the ‘Book of the year prize’ at the British book awards. After six popular Harry Potter books, JK Rowling began working on the final book of this series.  Jo personally loved the seventh book ,”‘The deathly hallows’  and this book once again broke all previous records. She wrote many other books later that included “Tales of Beedle the Bard” a book of wizarding old wives’ tales and “‘The tale of the three brothers”. 

Rowling then had her books turn into movies (2001-2002). Jo was very delighted and she agreed to let Warner Brothers create the series. When Jo saw the set for Diagon Alley, she burst into tears saying that it was perfect.The movies based on her books are amazing with a very touching end. 

I recommend the Harry Potter books for ages  10 and up. But if you are younger than that, you can read with an older sibling or a parent. You can watch Harry Potter movies or try audiobooks.

People are always asking me about my favorite Harry Potter book and movie and why I like them? 

My favorite Harry Potter books are the “Deathly Hallows’,’The half-blood prince”  and “The goblet of fire”. And my favorite movies are “The deathly hallows part 2”, “The order of the Phoenix” and “The half-blood prince”. I really like “The Order of the Phoenix”  because it shows teamwork, love, and friendship.  I also like ‘The deathly Hallows’ movie because the props and scenes look like an actual fiendfyre. I liked both the book and movie of “The half-blood prince” because it showed more about the horcruxes.  “The goblet of fire” taught me about how elf lives are horrible.  

These books have made me believe in fantasy and imaginary worlds of wizards. I have developed an interest in reading and creative writing. Jk Rowling’s books have taught me many important life lessons including courage, positivity, hope, and confidence.

I really like this quote from Harry Potter:

“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light”

I love this quote because when something bad is happening in your life you should not give up, because you still have the power to make a positive change and find a reason to be happy.

Several people ask me? Who is my favorite character from Harry Potter? Well let me tell you.

I really like Harry himself as he has plenty of courage, Hermionie because of her intelligence and her amazing lines. Ron Weasley is a funny person and makes me have a good laugh. Albus Dumbledore is one of the greatest wizards of all time and I love his quotes and I wish i could meet him if Harry potter was real. Next, is Severus Snape, played by Alan rickman. Sadly Rickman passed away of pancreatic cancer a few years ago. Snape was a very dark person on the outside,  and he made some wrong choices but he was really brave and secretly cared for him but acted nasty to the boy. Sirius Black is another one of my favorite characters. As he is Harry potters godfather, he really treated him as family. Another one is Remus Lupin. Remus taught Harry how to do the patronus charm.  Ginny weasley is another one of my favorites. She first started off on being Ron’s little sister but turned out to be a powerful woman. You might hate me because of this but, I do feel bad for Draco malfoy. He was actually a good person but his father was hard on him on the true meaning of blood purity and his mother is a light person but chose a wrong crowd. The other most favorites of mine are professor McGonagall, Dobby, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Tonks, and the Weasley twins.

Here are the  JK Rowling’s wizarding books in the order

• Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone(1997)
• Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets
• Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the goblet of fire
• Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix(2003)
• Harry Potter and the half-blood prince
• Harry Potter and the deathly hallows(2007)
• Tales of Beedle the bard
• Fantastic beasts series

If you are wondering who is Harry Potter, the main character of JK Rowling’s books?

Harry James Potter is a boy whose parents are wizards and were killed by Lord Voldemort when Harry was just an infant. Harry somehow survived his mother’s love protecting harry.  Since he has no family left, he has to live with his dreadful non-magical aunt, uncle, and cousin who keeps him in a cupboard under the stairs. Then starts his journey filled with magic.

If you want to learn more about Harry Potter please read the above-mentioned books and watch movies.

I am also happy to share that JK Rowling is releasing her new book “The Ickabog” and it is not Harry Potter but is a different story.

JK Rowling and her books have a strong influence on me. 

I have a dream of meeting JK Rowling and going to  Harry Potter world  one day. 

Jk Rowling currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and loves to read and write. Her Birthday and Harry Potter‘s birthday are just around the corner on July 31st.  


                HAPPY BIRTHDAY Harry and  JK!

Thank you for introducing me and many others to the world of imagination and wizards.

I want to end this blog with a favorite quote by JK Rowling.

“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

JK Rowling