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J.K. Rowling profile picture
J.K. Rowling
Author · 96 books

See also: Robert Galbraith Although she writes under the pen name J.K. Rowling, pronounced like rolling, her name when her first Harry Potter book was published was simply Joanne Rowling. Anticipating that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, 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. She calls herself Jo and has said, "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was young, unless they were angry." Following her marriage, she has sometimes used the name Joanne Murray when conducting personal business. During the Leveson Inquiry she gave evidence under the name of Joanne Kathleen Rowling. In a 2012 interview, Rowling noted that she no longer cared that people pronounced her name incorrectly. Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling, a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer, and Anne Rowling (née Volant), on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Bristol. Her mother Anne was half-French and half-Scottish. Her parents first met on a train departing from King's Cross Station bound for Arbroath in 1964. They married on 14 March 1965. Her mother's maternal grandfather, Dugald Campbell, was born in Lamlash on the Isle of Arran. Her mother's paternal grandfather, Louis Volant, was awarded the Croix de Guerre for exceptional bravery in defending the village of Courcelles-le-Comte during the First World War. Rowling's sister Dianne was born at their home when Rowling was 23 months old. The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four. 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. As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories, which she would usually then read to her sister. She recalls that: "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it. Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee." At the age of nine, Rowling moved to Church Cottage in the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales. When she was a young teenager, her great aunt, who Rowling said "taught classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable kind," gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels. Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling subsequently read all of her books. Rowling has said of her teenage years, in an interview with The New Yorker, "I wasn’t particularly happy. I think it’s a dreadful time of life." She had a difficult homelife; her mother was ill and she had a difficult relationship with her father (she is no longer on speaking terms with him). She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother had worked as a technician in the science department. Rowling said of her adolescence, "Hermione [a bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." Steve Eddy, who taught Rowling English when she first arrived, remembers her as "not exceptional" but "one of a group of girls who were bright, and quite good at English." Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth owned a turquoise Ford Anglia, which she says inspired the one in her books.

Series

Books

Harry Potter - A History of Magic book cover

Harry Potter - A History of Magic

2018

The stories of the Hogwarts founders book cover

The stories of the Hogwarts founders

2025

The Best Motivational Speeches of All Times book cover

The Best Motivational Speeches of All Times

2020

The Potter Family book cover

The Potter Family

2025

Portals to Reading Series

2000

The Magical Congress of the United States of America book cover

The Magical Congress of the United States of America

2025

해리 포터와 마법사의 돌 2 book cover

해리 포터와 마법사의 돌 2

1997

Fantastic Beasts book cover

Fantastic Beasts

The Wonder of Nature: Amazing Animals and the Magical Creatures of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts

2020

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2025

Harry Potter 4 Czara Ognia TW w.2023 book cover

Harry Potter 4 Czara Ognia TW w.2023

2023

The Ickabog book cover

The Ickabog

2020

هری پاتر و جام آتش 2 book cover

هری پاتر و جام آتش 2

2001

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone book cover

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

1997

Harry Potter book cover

Harry Potter

A Magical Year - The Illustrations of Jim Kay

2021

What's Your Story? book cover

What's Your Story?

2008

From the Wizarding Archive (Volume 1) book cover

From the Wizarding Archive (Volume 1)

Curated Writing from the World of Harry Potter

2024

해리 포터와 죽음의 성물 4 book cover

해리 포터와 죽음의 성물 4

2007

The Tales of Beedle the Bard - Illustrated Edition book cover

The Tales of Beedle the Bard - Illustrated Edition

A magical companion to the Harry Potter stories

2018

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2008

The History of the Quidditch World Cup

2014

해리 포터와 마법사의 돌 1 book cover

해리 포터와 마법사의 돌 1

1997

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد دو از سه book cover

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد دو از سه

2003

Harry Potter Illustrated Box Set book cover

Harry Potter Illustrated Box Set

2016

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone book cover

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Illustrated Edition (Harry Potter Illustrated Edtn) & Unofficial Harry Potter - The Ultimate Amazing Complete Quiz Book 2 Books Collection Set

2019

Harry Potter book cover

Harry Potter

The Prequel

2008

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book cover

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007

Hogwarts book cover

Hogwarts

An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide

2016

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix. 1 book cover

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix. 1

2003

Hogwarts Library book cover

Hogwarts Library

2012

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Illustrated Version

2017

J.K. Rowling Collection 6 Books Set book cover

J.K. Rowling Collection 6 Books Set

2020

Harry Potter and The prisoner of Azkaban

2025

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them book cover

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

2001

Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies book cover

Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies

2016

هری پاتر و شاهزاده ی دورگه کتاب 6 book cover

هری پاتر و شاهزاده ی دورگه کتاب 6

جلد دو از دو

2005

Complete Harry Potter Book Series Special Edition Boxed Set 1-7 by J.K. Rowling - Plus The Cursed Child & Fantastic Beasts book cover

Complete Harry Potter Book Series Special Edition Boxed Set 1-7 by J.K. Rowling - Plus The Cursed Child & Fantastic Beasts

2014

An Ode to Charlie Weasley

2025

해리포터와 혼혈왕자 4 book cover

해리포터와 혼혈왕자 4

2005

ハリー・ポッターと炎のゴブレット 上 book cover

ハリー・ポッターと炎のゴブレット 上

2000

Wizarding Schools

2025

Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists book cover

Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists

2016

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them book cover

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The Original Screenplay

2016

Aus dem Zaubererarchiv book cover

Aus dem Zaubererarchiv

Ausgewählte Texte aus der Welt von Harry Potter

2024

Coffret Harry Potter en 8 tomes book cover

Coffret Harry Potter en 8 tomes

2016

Harry Potter

Magical Tales about the Wizarding World

2025

해리포터와 불사조 기사단 [Part 4 of 5] book cover

해리포터와 불사조 기사단 [Part 4 of 5]

2003

Harry Potter book cover

Harry Potter

2005

Harry Potter Schoolbooks book cover

Harry Potter Schoolbooks

Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

2001

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد یک از سه book cover

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد یک از سه

2004

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book cover

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2003

Very Good Lives book cover

Very Good Lives

The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination

2015

The Christmas Pig book cover

The Christmas Pig

2021

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد دوم book cover

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد دوم

2025

Jack et la grande aventure du Cochon de Noël book cover

Jack et la grande aventure du Cochon de Noël

2023

Harry Potter House Slytherin Edition Series 11-15 book cover

Harry Potter House Slytherin Edition Series 11-15

5 Books Collection Set By J.K. Rowling

1999

Harry Potter book cover

Harry Potter

Magical Skies

2001

Number Four, Privet Drive book cover

Number Four, Privet Drive

2015

Fantastic Beasts 3 Books Series by J.K. Rowling [Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ; The Crimes of Grindelwald & The Secrets of Dumbledore(Hardcover)] book cover

Fantastic Beasts 3 Books Series by J.K. Rowling [Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ; The Crimes of Grindelwald & The Secrets of Dumbledore(Hardcover)]

2022

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban book cover

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

1999

Christmas at Hogwarts book cover

Christmas at Hogwarts

2024

Niespokojna krew. Część 2 book cover

Niespokojna krew. Część 2

2020

هری پاتر و شاهزاده ی دورگه book cover

هری پاتر و شاهزاده ی دورگه

جلد 1 از 2

2005

Hogwarts Ghosts

2025

Les Animaux fantastiques book cover

Les Animaux fantastiques

Les Secrets de Dumbledore – Le texte du film

2022

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book cover

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2005

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire book cover

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2000

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets book cover

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

1998

Harry Potter Books 1-3 Boxed Set (MinaLima Edition) book cover

Harry Potter Books 1-3 Boxed Set (MinaLima Edition)

1999

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book cover

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2018

Quidditch Through the Ages book cover

Quidditch Through the Ages

2001

The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac book cover

The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac

2023

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child book cover

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

2016

Harry Potter book cover

Harry Potter

Night Journey

2001

Harry Potter und das verwunschene Kind book cover

Harry Potter und das verwunschene Kind

Die Entstehung – Hinter den Kulissen des gefeierten Theaterstücks

2021

Harry Potter 03 book cover

Harry Potter 03

Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban by Rowling, Joanne K. (2013) Paperback

2025

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد یک book cover

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد یک

2025

Fantastic Beasts book cover

Fantastic Beasts

The Crimes of Grindelwald - The Original Screenplay

2018

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book cover

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2003

Quidditch World Cup 2014

2014

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets book cover

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

A Magical 3-D Adventure

2002

The Hogwarts Collection book cover

The Hogwarts Collection

2017

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2 and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 2 Books Bundle Collection book cover

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2 and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 2 Books Bundle Collection

2016

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد سه از سه book cover

هری پاتر و محفل ققنوس - کتاب پنجم جلد سه از سه

2003

History of Magic in North America

2016

Les secrets de Dumbledore book cover

Les secrets de Dumbledore

Le texte du film

2022

Harry Potter Boxed Set, Books 1-5 book cover

Harry Potter Boxed Set, Books 1-5

2003

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book cover

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2003

Harry Potter Illustrated Collection book cover

Harry Potter Illustrated Collection

2019

Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry book cover

Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

2016

Fantastic Beasts book cover

Fantastic Beasts

The Secrets of Dumbledore - The Complete Screenplay

2022

The Casual Vacancy book cover

The Casual Vacancy

2012

Pottermore’s guide to the twenties

1920s New York

2025

Harry Potter Books #5-7 book cover

Harry Potter Books #5-7

Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince & Deathly Hallows

2007

هری پاتر و یادگاران مرگ book cover

هری پاتر و یادگاران مرگ

جلد دوم

2007

Journeys to Hogwarts book cover

Journeys to Hogwarts

A Harry Potter Immersive Audio Experience

2020

The Tales of Beedle the Bard book cover

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

2008

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