biography
| name: |
Rowling, J(oanne) K(athleen)
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1965– )
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| biography:
| British writer, the creator of Harry Potter. She grew up in Chepstow, Gwent, and studied at Exeter University. She taught English as a foreign language in Portugal, where she married and later divorced Jorge Arantes. Returning to Scotland, she continued to teach, while writing the first of her enormously succcessful children's books, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997; filmed 2001, US title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), about a boy and his adventures at Hogwarts, a magic school for wizards. It was followed by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998; filmed 2002) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999). The first three books in the series (seven are planned in all) sold over 35 million copies worldwide, while the fourth, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), achieved a record pre-publication sale of 2 million copies. The books appeal on many levels, and their stories are played against a backcloth of controlled anarchy where nothing is what it seems. She has won numerous awards, including the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for 9–11 year olds, the British Book Awards' Children's Book of the Year, and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. She married Neil Murray at the end of 2001. |
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