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25 August 2006
The Write Stuff - JK
Rowling
"Writers don't need
love - all they require is money," said playwright John
Osbourne. But these authors seem to have plenty of
both.
JK Rowling - £600
million
iShe is quite possibly the
only person alive who can't complain about the near
legendary inefficiency of public transport - it was during a
four hour delay on a train trip between Manchester and
London back in 1990 that JK
Rowling dreamed up
the boy wizard character who would make her over half a
billion pounds.
"Harry just strolled into
my head, fully formed" - this is probably Rowling's most
quoted quote, and it makes her achievements seem effortless.
But make no mistake: it takes guts, perseverance and, of
course, talent to do what Rowling has done. The Harry Potter
series has sold over a quarter of a billion books, been
translated into more than 60 languages and distributed in
over 200 countries and all have appeared on best seller
lists around the globe. Four of the books have been made
into massively successful movies.
Joanne Rowling, who
graduated from Exeter University, put almost six years into
the first of her Harry Potter installments. During this
time, she taught in Portugal, married a TV journalist, had a
daughter Jessica, got divorced and returned and returned to
Britain, where she went to live in Edinburgh to be near her
younger sister Di.
Rowling's manuscript was
rejected y nine publishers before London based Bloomsbury
signed her on. The publisher opted to use her initials on
the cover, on the grounds that if they used an obviously
female name the target group of young boys might be
reluctant to buy the books. Rowling chose to adopt her
grandmother's middle name, Kathleen.
To date, six of the seven
volumes of the Harry Potter series, one for each of Harry's
school years, have already been published and all have
broken sales records. The last three volumes in the series
have all been the fastest-selling books in history, grossing
more in their opening 24 hours than blockbuster films. The
first three books all received the Nestle Smarties book
prize, a first for any author.
Rowling is the wealthiest
woman in the UK, ahead of even the Queen - Forbes magazine
estimated her worth at £576 million in 2004, before
Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire was released at the
Cinemas.
In 2001 Rowling bought a
luxurious 19th century mansion in Scotland, where she
married her second husband, Dr Neil Murray, the same year.
She has since had two more children, David and Mackenzie.
"I'm an extraordinarily lucky person" says Rowling, who has
won more awards than you can shake a wand at, and has also
been named an Officer of the British Empire (OBE). She has
certainly spread her luck around, giving generously to
charities particularly relating to multiple sclerosis of
which her mother died aged 45.
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