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Name: Joanne Kathleen Rowling (rhymes with bowling)
Nicknames: Jo to family and friends, JK to fans and Jake to friends who want to annoy and tease her about the "JK" title. She was teased about her last name with things like "rolling pin" and "Rolling Stone" while growing up.
JK Rowling: her initials were used because the publisher feared boys wouldn't want to read the Harry Potter adventures if they knew it was written by a woman
Born: July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury General Hospital
Mother: Anne died in 1990, aged 45, from multiple sclerosis. Jo was 25.
Father: Peter was a manager with Rolls-Royce
Grandparents: Jo's grandfathers were named Stan and Ernie. One grandmother was named Kathleen (Jo's middle name) and the other loved dogs... like Aunt Marge!
Siblings: Dianne, or "Di", a little less than 2 years younger. She had trained as a nurse and is now studying law in Edinburgh.
Spouse #1: Jo was married to Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese television journalist, in October 1992. They seperated after a short time and divorced soon after the birth of their daughter.
Spouse #2: Jo married Dr. Neil Murray on 26 December 2001. There were only 15 guests, just family.
Children: Jessica, her only child, was born in July 1993.
Childhood: Jo has said she was a "pudding-faced child with glasses and rather studious, a shy, snotty, swotty little kid and very insecure". Jo was born a city-girl and her family moved just twice -- from Yate (just outside Bristol) to Winterbourne (on the other side of Bristol) and from Winterbourne to the countryside in Tutshill near Chepstow in the Forest of Dean.
Education: Tutshill Primary; Wyedean Comprehensive (where she was Head Girl); Exeter University (she studied French and Classics); teacher-training course in Manchester, England; Moray House Teacher Training College
Favorite School Subjects: English and languages
Least Favorite School Subject: Metal Shop
First Story: "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." [okukbooks.com]
Jobs: she worked as a secretary, then for Amnesty International. In 1991, at age 26, Jo went to Portugal and taught children English as a second language. She later taught French in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Writing Harry Potter: the idea came to Jo on a train in 1990. She named Harry after a childhood friend, Ian Potter. She completed the first book over a five year period while in Portugal and upon moving to Edinburgh. She spent all her spare change on items for three-month old Jessica and had little money. She wrote in cafes which let her write while the baby slept in a carriage nearby. There will be seven books in the series, one for each year Harry spends at Hogwarts.
Grants: 8,000 from the Scottish Arts Council (with which she finished Chamber of Secrets)
Misc.: In 1996 Jo came back to Britain with her daughter after her marriage ended. She quickly moved with Jessica to Edinburgh to be near Di.
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