J. K. Rowling: A Biography

J. K.Rowling: A Biography: The Genius Behind Harry Potter. Updated edition 2003.

She is the creator of probably the most famous – and certainly the best-loved – character in contemporary fiction. She is also the author of her own escape from an existence on the brink of poverty, with no job and few prospects. On the one hand there is J.K. Rowling, who wrote, and continues to write, the Harry Potter novels, a literary phenomenon. On the other, there is Joanne Rowling, a quiet, dreamy, rather shy woman whose brilliance in translating her dreams into prose transformed her own life. JK – The Story of J.K. Rowling details her life from her childhood and schooling in the West Country; the effect upon her of the wasting illness that struck down her mother; her time at Exeter University; her long-term relationship and her career and marriage, which collapsed after thirteen months, leaving her to return to Britain with her baby daughter. The Harry Potter novels are more than fantasy: there is a toughness to the writing, a sense of realism and a questing morality that go beyond mere adventure, magic and the battle between good and evil. How those books came to be written, and the influences that shaped both them and their author, form the core of this inspirational biography.