Index ID: CGKDS — Publication date: June 26th, 2006
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Index ID: 70BKS — Publication date: May 2006
One of my fondest memories of my eldest daughter at age five involved ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ by C.S. Lewis. I used to balance the book on top of a very tall standard lamp to prevent her reading on before the next bedtime. One day, while I was safely in the kitchen, she clambered up a set of shelves to reach the book, gulped down the next two chapters and then, hearing my footsteps, hastily returned it to its perch on top of the lamp. I only rumbled her because she showed absolutely no surprise when, during that night’s reading, Eustace, the hero, turned into a dragon.
My two younger children are still immersed in picture books, although my son’s most recent favourite is ‘Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham’, which quite apart from increasing his vocabulary, can also be used to persuade him to eat omelettes. I think we own the complete works of Sandra Boynton, which are so witty and well-written; my personal favourite is ‘Hippos Go Berserk’, but my husband and I both know ‘The Going to Bed Book’ off by heart and have often recited it in the dark to soothe a fractious toddler. The ‘Hairy Maclary’ and ‘Slinky Malinki’ books by Lynley Dodd are some of the most satisfying books to read aloud, with their rhymes building into funny stories. Finally, ‘The Snail and the Whale’ and ‘The Gruffalo’, both by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, have given literally hours of pleasure to the whole family.
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Index ID: FWBM — Publication date: April 18th, 2006
When I was young, I had two teachers whom I found very inspiring — Pearl Biddle tutored me in French, and Lucy Shepherd taught me English. They were passionate pedagogues who taught me more than their subjects. Pearl was a great believer in learning for learning’s sake, and Lucy was a great role model for a teenage girl — dry, assertive, and understanding.
When we were growing up, I told my sister, Di, hundreds of stories; she didn’t complain too much. We are very close; like many children, we had a dual life, a separate, secret existence apart from my parents. It is now as though we are the only remaining members of an otherwise extinct tribe. The main female character in the Harry Potter books, Hermione, is drawn largely from my experience of being a young girl. I was very frightened of failure. I’ve got used to it since, and it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as I used to imagine.
I never told my family that I wanted to be a writer. They would have told me I didn’t have a hope. People in my family did not become writers. There was a great emphasis on mortgages, pensions, and career paths. I felt I would be taken about as seriously as I had said I wanted to be a pop star, and sternly dissuaded (not that it would have worked).
I can’t think of an occasion when I felt it was useful to be female. I can, however, remember passionately wishing I were a boy on a couple of occasions, but that was because I was dreaming of knocking out a particularly vicious male bully. The one event that, for me, triggered a deep experience of feminine power is giving birth. There is nothing more magnificent in the whole of nature. Watching my older daughter grow has been very interesting. Some of what she is going through is very familiar — the eternal difficulties of childhood. She is very different from me — an aspiring engineer and a real tomboy which I love. I am grateful that she is growing up at a time when she can pursue the career of her choice. She recently read a book about the suffragettes, and we have been having many dinnertime discussions about how their various sacrifices led, in the end, to Jessica’s freedom to study technology.
There are many things I liked, then and now, about being a girl. The friendships you make with other women are very different from the friendships men make, and I certainly wouldn’t want to swap. I like women’s perceptiveness and ability to empathize. I like their ability to juggle nineteen jobs before breakfast, and I prefer women’s shoes.
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Index ID: GG — Publication date: March 2006
Young ladies 200 years ago weren’t allowed to read novels because it would inflame them, excite them, and make them long for things that weren’t real. I was distressed to read about Virginia Woolf being told she mustn’t write because it woudl exacerbate her mental condition. We need a place to escape, whether as a writer or a reader, and the world that I’ve createdis a shining example of a world to which it’s pleasant to escape. I recall the beautiful image from C.S. Lewis where there are the pools, the “World Between Worlds,” and you can jump into the different pools to access the different worlds. That for me was always a metaphor for a library. And that for me is what literature should be.
Today, children need stories because they need to test their imaginations, try on other people’s ideas, inhabit other lives, send their minds where their bodies are not yet mature enough to go. No films, no TV program, no computer or video game can ever duplicate the magic that occurs when the reader’s imagination meets the author’s to create a unique, private kingdom.
In writing Harry Potter, I sought to show how truly heoric it is to fight a battle that can never be won.
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Index ID: BLACKTREE — Publication date: February 21st, 2006
The Noble and Most Ancient House of BLACK
(there are many stories between the lines)
J.K. Rowling
Sirius (1845-1853)
Phineus Nigellus (1847-1925)
Ursula Flint
Elladora (1850-1931)
Sirius (1877-1952)
Hesper Gamp
Cygnus (1889-1943)
Violetta Bulstrode
Belvina (1886-1962)
Herbert Burke
Acrtunus (1884-1959)
Lysandra Yaxley
Arcuturs (1901-1991)
Melania Macmillan
Lycoris (1904-1965)
Regulus (1906-1959)
Pollux (1912-1990)
Irma Crabbe
Cassiapeia (1915-1992)
Dorea (1920-1977)
Charlus Potter
Callidora (1915-)
Harfand Longbottom
Charis (1919-1973)
Caspar Crouch
Lucretia (1925-1992)
Ignatius Prewett
Orion (1929-1979)
Walburga (1925-1985)
Cirgnus (1938-1992)
Druella Rosier
Regulus (1961-1979)
Bellatrix (1951-)
Rodolphus Lestrange
Narcissa (1955-)
Lucius Malfoy
Draco Malfoy (1980-)
Disowned Family Members
Iola Black – married Muggle Bob Hitchens
Phineus – supported Muggle Rights
Marius Black – Squib
Cedrella Black – Married blood traitor Septimus Weasley
Alphard Black – gave gold to runaway nephew Sirius
Sirius Black – ran away from home
Andromeda Black – married Muggle-born Ted Tonks
‘I used to be there,’ said Sirius, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn. ‘My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home…’
HARRY POTTER & THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
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Index ID: BBYSML — Publication date: February 10th, 2006
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Index ID: FIGHT — Publication date: February 5th, 2006
My eldest daughter keeps a pair of rats and I’m quite happy to let them sit on my shoulder while she cleans them out; snakes have never bothered me and, while I don’t much like spiders, I could hold a tarantula if I had to. For me the worst thing in the world, the one unendurable terror, the thing that I cannot even imagine without an accelerating pulse and a compulsion to stand up and move fast in any direction, is incarceration in a very small space.
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Index ID: FWOC — Publication date: January 2nd, 2006
When I arrived in Edinburgh in December 1993, the city was snow-covered, almost dauntingly beautiful and austerely unfamiliar. I did not mean to stay here; I had come to spend Christmas at my sister’s and supposed that I would then head south, where most of my friends were at that time.
January came, the snow vanished, but I didn’t. Princes Street Gardens were within easy walking distance and entrance to the Museum of Scotland was free; my baby was growing into a toddler and loved tottering around both of them. I stumbled along in her wake, wondering what was going to happen to us, almost as shell-shocked as finding myself in this strange new city as I was to be a single mother, broke and jobless.
It was not Edinburgh’s fault that I was in this mess, but as it happened to form the backdrop for the ‘rags’ part of what might as well be called my Cinderella story, I came to know more about being poor and isolated here than in any other city. It was in Edinburgh, rather than in Paris, London, Manchester or Oporto, all of which I inhabited during my nomadic twenties, that I became most acutely aware of the barriers, invisible and inflexible as bullet-proof glass, that separate those in the affluent and able-bodied mainstream of our society from those who, for whatever reason, live on its fringes.
Most of my pre-Potter Edinburgh days were spent in a small block of flats that housed, at that time, three other single mothers. I was very glad to move in, because it was a big improvement on my previous glorified bed-sit, and in my three years there my daughter learned to walk and talk and I secured my life’s ambition: a publishing deal. But it was also there that a group of local boys amused themselves on dull nights by throwing stones at my two year old’s bedroom window; there that I wrestled a drunk man back out of my hallway as he tried to force open the front door; there that we were broken into one night while we lay in bed. And I knew that far worse happened to other people, and people not so far away either; my upstairs neighbour used to pause to chat on the stairs wearing sunglasses to hide her black eyes.
Violence, crime and addiction were part of everyday life in that part of Edinburgh. Yet barely ten minutes away by bus was a different world, a world of cashmere and cream teas and the imposing facades of the institutions that make this city the fourth largest financial centre in Europe. I felt in those days as though there was an abyss separating me from those who bustled past me carrying briefcases and Jenners bags — and, in truth, there was.
The OneCity Trust has identified this separation as a ‘”culture of contentment”, which insulates [the more affluent] from the disadvantage experienced by excluded groups and areas’. These groups may include the poor, the disabled, those marginalized due to their ethnicity or, in the words of OneCity, ‘people who feel isolated from others and from the benefits of the city’, a wholly accurate description of how I felt then.
Social exclusion affects all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, because it is on the outskirts of society that misery, despair, physical and mental health problems, and the abuse of the self and others flourish. Every city, every citizen, would benefit directly and tangibly from helping bring down those barriers that prevent children reaching their full potential, keep would-be workers from earning and isolate so many within their own homes or their own heads.
The OneCity Trust has enabled both individuals and organisations to make their voices heard, perhaps for the first time ever within a city and a society that can seem to have forgotten them. The Trust is now analysing that information and making recommendations for a more inclusive Edinburgh, so that changes can be made to make this city more completely ours — all of ours.
In the past few years, since the stunningly unexpected change of fortune that hit me with the publication of my first book, Edinburgh has often been described as my ‘adopted’ home city. True, I retain traces of my West Country accent, and I tend to keep my jumper on even while pale blue men are basting themselves in the watery sunshine in Princes Street Gardens; these are sure pointers to the fact that I wasn’t born in the old Simpsons’. But as it happens, I have never lived so long anywhere, either as adult or child, as I have lived here. Edinburgh is home now, it is part of me, and I had come to love it long before Harry Potter hit the bookshelves. I am proud to live here, and proud that my home city is committed to becoming a more inclusive place. OneCity seeks to unify: I cannot think of a better goal, for Edinburgh, Scotland, or the world.
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Index ID: DGB6 — Publication date: November, 2005
Dear Booksellers,
Once again I would like to send my special thanks to
you all for working so enthusiastically
to bring Harry Potter’s world to so many
German speaking readers.
Very best wishes
J.K. Rowling
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Index ID: RB6DW — Publication date: August 10th, 2005 to November 15th, 2007
Dr. Neil Murray ‘gives up work’
Last year several newspaper stories alleged that my husband had given up work, presumably to sit at home and watch me write. This is one of those stories that make me angry, because they hurt my family. We asked the newspapers who had printed the misinformation to correct the story, which they did. However, an article has recently appeared in which Neil is yet again described as not working. So… and hopefully for the last time… Neil has NEVER given up work and continues to practise as a doctor in Edinburgh.
Gilderoy Lockhart is based on JKR’s first husband
No, he most certainly is not. I have always been honest about the fact that Gilderoy Lockhart WAS inspired by a real man (see the ‘Extras’ section). For obvious reasons I am not going to identify the person in question – however irritating he was, he does not deserve that – but I can state categorically that I never married him. I do not lie about the inspiration for characters (although at times like these, I wonder why I don’t refuse to answer these questions at all!)
Harry Potter based on JKR’s cousin
Once more I put fingers to keyboard to state wearily that Harry is a completely imaginary character. He is not based on any of the men I have met during my lifetime who wore glasses, or any of the boys who had a scar somewhere on their face, or any of my friends who went to boarding school. But wait – now I stop and think about it, I’M the real Harry Potter! I wear glasses, I’ve got a scar, my school had houses, I sometimes got into trouble… so stand by to read a story in some tabloid tomorrow headlined: ‘Rowling Demands Half-Share of Own Royalties’. Unfortunately and depressingly, these sorts of stories crop up all the time (see my ‘Biography’). There is nothing any author can do to stop people claiming that they ‘inspired’ characters. I can only tell the truth and trust that readers with a grain of sense will know whom to believe.
Joanie
According to a recent article in a UK newspaper, I am known to my good friends as ‘Joanie’. Just for the record, nobody, in the whole course of my life, has ever called me ‘Joanie.’ I’m looking forward to finding out what my husband calls me. ‘Kevin’, perhaps.
Rowling is ‘riled’ by being seen as a children’s author
Absolute garbage! I have said many times that if I remain a children’s author forever (which I may well do) I will never see this as being a lesser, easier or less ‘serious’ career than writing for adults. Whenever I have discussed the possibility of writing adult fiction, it has nearly always been because an interviewer has asked ‘might you one day write a book for adults?’
Rowling hates Harry Potter
I love Harry Potter and I always will.
Rowling has had Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall to dinner at her house.
Well, I just hope they remember it, because I can’t.
J K Rowling is not a real person, but the name given to a group of anonymous writers
This theory originated in Norway, which figures… nobody who is familiar with the UK press could possibly imagine that such a massive fraud would remain unexposed for longer than ten minutes.
According to a British newspaper, I recently appeared at a Brazilian literary festival. And was I content to take home a nice bit of pottery or leatherwork as a souvenir?
No, not good enough for JK. I decided to buy myself a palatial Brazilian holiday home while I was there. If any Brazilian Harry Potter fans are reading this and wondering why they never got the chance to buy tickets to hear me read, it’s because I’ve never been to Brazil. And if any Brazilian property dealers are wondering why they didn’t get my business, it’s because I’ve never bought a house in Brazil, either. Not even the sumptuous colonial-style mansion, whose grounds nudge the edge of a forest, described in the article. My imaginary neighbour was Mick Jagger, too. I’d say you couldn’t make it up… except someone has.
JKR has no right to talk about the glorification of unhealthily underweight women in some sections of the media, because there’s a fat boy in her books.
There have been several variants of this story, all of which were written by people who had either never read past chapter two of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, or chose simply to ignore what the rest of us fondly term ‘facts’. I thought of listing all the many characters in the Harry Potter books who are on the plumper side, to demonstrate what a very diverse group of personalities they are, how they include several of my most important, admirable and lovable characters, and how ‘overweight’ in no way equates to ‘bad’ in my fictional world… but Andy from Mugglenet has done it for me. See http://www.mugglenet.com/infosection/opinion/fatfem.shtml. Andy, I really owe you, because I’ve used the time you saved me to type up half a chapter instead!
J K Rowling does pilates, yoga, jogs, has botox injections and has cut out saturated fats
Apparently I’ve been ‘Rowling back the years’ (ho, ho). Yes, the secrets behind my new (ahem) health and beauty regime have been confided to a British newspaper by a ‘friend’. Now, most people stop having imaginary friends once they’re adults, but mine sometimes drop in on journalists to give them completely unrecognisable accounts of my life. My carbon-based friends, however, if asked whether I jog, do pilates and yoga, have a frozen forehead or refuse cake, might well suffer some kind of mirth-induced internal injury. It would be churlish not to thank the journalist concerned for saying that I look better now than I did in the early days of Harry Potter’s success, and I am indeed grateful for the underlying compliment. In the interests of accuracy, however, I must point out that, far from losing weight, I’ve gained a good bit since the ‘before’ photographs featured in the article. So J K Rowling’s top tip for today is: eat more. Perhaps my next project could be a revolutionary diet book?
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