On the evening of July 30, 2016, the day before JK Rowling turns 51 and Harry Potter turns 36, the world will see Rowling's curse. On this day, the premiere of the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” will take place at the Palace Theater in London. Tickets are moderately priced even at the current ruble exchange rate, from 15 pounds (approximately 1,750 rubles as of February 13, 2016), but they are sold out months in advance - if you want to try your luck, you can go to the performance’s website, seats for May 2017 are still on sale. The day after the premiere, a book with the text of the play will appear in bookstores. "The Cursed Child" is not a theatrical version of one of the parts of "Harry Potter" and not a short retelling of the entire saga. This is a new story about grown-up Harry and his family, written by JK Rowling herself. Seven novels have been written about Harry Potter, they were published from 1997 to 2007, sold a whopping 450 million copies, and were then extremely successfully filmed. The author of books has turned from a self-taught writer into a millionaire, constantly appearing in various ratings of the “most influential women peace", and a contender for Nobel Prize according to literature. In 2007, after the release of The Deathly Hallows, the final installment, Rowling announced that the series had ended and would never be followed by new books.
And now Harry Potter returns. Fans waited, believed and finally got it. But what?
This is not a pipe
#This is_not_a novel #This_is_not_a prequel is scattered with JK Rowling hashtags in her twitter. This is #19_years_later. What do we know about the new Potter? Firstly, it is a play, and secondly, the play is so large that the production is divided into two parts and will be shown two evenings in a row. Thirdly, although this is not a novel, but Rowling herself, it turns out that she did not break her promise not to write more books about Potter, “The Cursed Child” is still a full-fledged 8th story and will become part of the so-called canon - that is official episode of the larger Harry Potter universe. The fans owe the book’s release to themselves—Rowling was inundated with letters from admirers from all over the world asking her to do something for those who couldn’t get to London. Two editions of the book are planned - in the first the rehearsal text will be published, in the second - the final one, with all the edits by the director and the troupe made during the general run-through. Closer to the publication of the volume, we can expect unprecedented excitement - all the past seven releases of the next book were accompanied by sheer madness and wild news. People tried to steal manuscripts from the printing house, agents, publishers and the editor made spy attacks when handing over the manuscript, they were afraid to even hold it in their hands and were horrified at the mere thought that someone would find out that they had it. The rumors were true: for example, the vans in which the book is transported to stores are surrounded by iron chains so that no one gets inside and finds out how it all ends before the start of official sales. This summer the rumors will probably be similar - say, books will be delivered by cargo drones accompanied by combat drones.
Fourthly, the author of the play is #not_quite_Rowling. She was responsible for the plot and characters, and the play “Cursed Child” itself was written by screenwriter Jack Thorne, who specializes in TV series about troubled teenagers and other skinheads - “Skins”, “Misfits”, “This is England ’88”. In total, there are three names on the cover of the book: director John Tiffany, who received a Tony Award for the musical Once Upon a Time, is also listed there.
Little is known about the plot. The year is 2017, almost 20 years have passed since the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry and Ginny have three children, Harry is buried alive working as an Auror at the Ministry of Magic, Ginny works as a journalist, and their youngest son Albus Severus Potter begins his first year at Hogwarts. The boy has a hard time with the fame of his family and the burden of his family name, and he is forced to deal with long-standing family secrets. The synopsis promises: “Father and son discover that sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.” There are not many plots in the world at all - only 36, according to the 19th century French theater critic Georges Polti. Let's see what Rowling came up with in a campaign with an expert on youth gangs and neo-Nazis.
Black Hermione
The grown-up Harry Potter will be portrayed on stage by Jamie Parker, an English theater actor who previously played Henry V in Henry V, one of the main roles in the musical Guys and Dolls, and in the movies he helped Tom Cruise assassinate Hitler in Operation Valkyrie " But it's all very boring. More interesting with two other main roles. Paul Thornley, who plays red-haired Ron Weasley, is brunette, and Noma Dumezweni, who plays Hermione, is black and 46 years old. She has already played a witch - in a theatrical production of Macbeth. Having joked back in December, when the casting became known, all the banal jokes on the topic of political correctness and old jokes about colorblind people and one-legged lesbians, fans rushed to study the sacred seven books and found out that Hermione’s skin color is indeed not indicated anywhere. She is white in the film only because Emma Watson is white. In general, the situation is quite interesting: one of the cross-cutting themes of Harry Potter is the conflict between Nazi magicians and antifa magicians. The first do not like “mudbloods” like Hermione and dream of destroying them. The second are against magical xenophobia. That is, even the most slow-witted people understood that this was a metaphorical description of ordinary racism. With black Hermione, the metaphor becomes completely head-on.
Literary girl
After the release of the book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” in 2007, the writer went into literary experiments. In 2012, “The Casual Vacancy” went on sale, the story of a small town in which the death of a city council member provokes a long-simmering conflict between everyone and everyone. "Vacancy" is written extremely elegantly - in form it is very similar to the classic British detective story. The number of characters, space and time are limited, a closed world is shown, torn apart by internal contradictions and behind-the-scenes intrigues, there is a corpse, but there is no corpus delicti. Rowling is still not just a writer, she is, to begin with, an extremely diligent reader. The original Harry Potter was a kind of textbook of English children's literature, with endless indirect and sometimes almost direct references to the texts of its predecessors. Apparently, before writing “The Casual Vacancy,” she studied detective stories and liked it.
Then a new series followed - about the always hungover one-legged detective Cormoran Strike, whose body is broken by the Iraq war, and his soul - by the war with his ex-fiancée. There is an anecdotal situation associated with this book, either flattering or, on the contrary, very offensive for Rowling. The first series, the novel The Cuckoo's Calling, was published in 2013 under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. And in the first months several hundred copies were sold. And then it became known who the true author was, and in a couple of weeks several hundred thousand were sold.
We don't yet know what JK Rowling read before she started writing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Captivated by your heroes
Obviously, Rowling's attempts to distance herself from her main creation end in failure over and over again. Over the past nine years, she has given out new crumbs of details about the heroes of the saga with enviable regularity. I published it (for charity) short stories about Harry’s parents, she either wrote essays signed by Rita Skeeter about the visit to the Quidditch World Cup by the adult Potter and his brothers in arms from Dumbledore’s Army, and published reports from this championship, or told fans details not mentioned in the books. Yes, Dumbledore is gay, and his brother is a bestiality, Dolores Umbridge really was raped by a herd of centaurs, the marriage of Hermione and Ron cannot do without a family therapist, Potter will have a new terrible scar. In 2008, she wrote Tales of the Bard Bill, a book whose existence was mentioned in the saga, and a two-page miniature, Harry Potter: The Background, about the problems of young James Potter and Sirius Black with the police.
This year is also quite fruitful according to news from Rowling.
On websites specializing in anime and manga, a series of full-length portraits of Harry Potter characters with traditional Japanese comics big eyes and the caption: “This is not fanart!” It seems like these are the first images from the officially licensed manga based on Harry Potter.
Meanwhile, July 30, 2016 is not the only red day in the Potter calendar—the premiere of the film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” will take place on November 18. Rowling published the book of the same name back in 2001; in the world of Potter, it is used to teach how to care for magical animals. But this will not be a film adaptation of a textbook, but a kind of prequel to the saga - about wizards and magical animals in New York in the 1920s with Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne from The Theory of Everything. And will be affected again critical issues relationships between wizards and mere mortals. The script was written by Rowling herself. We are clearly learning something new about the magical world.
A writer is not always the master of his plots and characters. Of course, the play will enrich JK Rowling. Even if The Cursed Child was a failure, people would still pay for tickets and books—any piece of paper with Rowling's name on it was bound to be a success. But don’t think that it’s all about money. Harry Potter came back because he had to come back. Some literary characters returned from the dead, like, say, Sherlock Holmes or Ostap Bender, whom their creators killed completely and irrevocably. And then they returned to the world of the living, and their adventures continued - simply because there was no other way. Yes, the writer is pressured by fans, publishers are pressured, but so are the heroes, the fictional Universe is pressured.
Joan Katherine Rowling tried to get as far as possible from the world she created. In her new works, she broke all the rules inherent in fantasy and happily used words like “condom” and “vagina”, because you can’t have sex with a unicorn in the background, she said. But there is still no escape from Rowling’s Harry Potter, and in this regard he is, of course, a cursed child.
The play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Parts one and two" may not be supplied in part or in whole and may not be used except under express license from the work's copyright holders, J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions Limited.
For any questions, you can contact the following email address:
Dedicated to Jack Thorne, who came into my world and magically transformed it.
J. K. Rowling
Joe, Louis, Max, Sonny and Merle - these are you... sorcerers without exception...
John Tiffany
Jack Thorne
Part one
Act one
Scene one
KING'S CROSS STATION
The station is full of people; Everyone is busy, in a hurry to get somewhere. Among the chaos are two loaded carts, each with a large birdcage rattling on top. The carts are being pulled by two boys, one by JAMES POTTER, the other by ALBUS POTTER. Following them is their mother GINNY. HARRY, a thirty-seven-year-old man, carries his daughter LILY on his shoulder.
Dad. Him again.
James, calm down already.
I just said that he could get into Slytherin... but he still can... ( withering under his father's angry gaze) ... that's it, I'm silent.
ALBUS (mother)
Will you write to me? Will you?
Every day, if you want.
No. No. Not every day. James says most people receive letters from home once a month. I don't want...
Last year we wrote to your brother three times a week.
What? James!
ALBUS looks at JAMES indignantly.
Yes. Don't believe everything he says about Hogwarts. He's a big joker, your brother.
JAMES (with a grin)
Can we please go now?
Albus looks at his father, then at his mother.
You just need to go straight into the wall between platforms nine and ten.
Everything is so great here!
The main thing is don’t stop and don’t be afraid to crash, that’s the most important thing. It's best to take a running start if you're nervous.
HARRY and LILY take ALBUS' cart, GINNY takes JAMES' cart, and together they all run headlong towards the barrier.
Scene two
PLATFORM 9¾
She is completely enveloped in the thick white steam of the Hogwarts Express.
And here, too, there are a lot of people - just not business people in formal suits, but sorcerers and witches in robes. Everyone is trying to get through to their adored offspring and say goodbye.
Platform 9¾.
Where is everyone? Are they here? What if they didn't come?
HARRY points to RON, HERMIONE and their daughter ROSE. LILY rushes towards them as fast as she can.
Uncle Ron. Uncle Ron!!!
RON turns around and, as LILY runs up, scoops her up into his arms.
Of all the Potters, this is my favorite.
Have you prepared a trick for me?
Have you heard about the spirit-nose-out? There's one in Weasley's Amazing Ultra Tricks. Patented item.
Mom! Dad is back with his stupid tricks.
HERMIONE
In your opinion, they’re stupid, but he thinks it’s super deluxe, and I… that it’s half the middle.
Okay, just a minute. Let me chew... air. And now I... forgive me if I smell like garlic...
He breathes in Lily's face. She giggles.
You smell like oatmeal.
Boom. Bam. Bams. Young lady, get ready: you won't be able to smell anymore...
RON pulls his nose away from her face.
Where's my nose?
He opens his palm: it’s empty. It was a stupid trick. Everyone is in awe of how stupid he is.
You are stupid.
Everyone stared at us again.
It's because of me! I'm terribly famous. My experiments with noses are legendary!
HERMIONE
That's for sure.
Did you park properly?
Fine. Hermione thought I wouldn't pass the Muggle driving test, can you imagine? She thought I would have to confuse the examiner.
The Adventures of a Boy Wizard became the second best-selling books after the Bible. The series of novels about studying at Hogwarts has sold half a billion copies and has been translated into 70 languages.
In 2004, Ms. Rowling was named the richest woman in Great Britain, and in 2011 she became the only writer to earn over $1 billion from writing.
Although Forbes removed the novelist from its list of billionaires in 2012 due to her extensive philanthropic activities and high taxes, she remains the world's highest-paid writer.
As of November 2018, Forbes lists her as having a net worth of $54 million, and in the “Celebrity 100 – 2018” list, she is number 42.
On her personal Twitter, the novelist modestly indicated only one type of activity - “writer.” We will add her work description, because Rowling is also a producer and screenwriter.
JK Rowling's biography begs to be shown on screen or in book pages, it is so reminiscent of the fairy tale about Cinderella. There was a time when her life companions were poverty, loneliness and a diagnosis of depression, with suicidal tendencies. What spell should be cast to transform despair into faith, and poverty into wealth? The secret to JK Rowling's success lies not in having a magic wand, but in her purposeful nature.
The story of how the parents of the future writer met is very romantic. Both Londoners, Peter James Rowling and Anne Volant met in 1964 on a train from King's Cross station to Scotland. The young people were heading to the locations of the Royal Navy. When the girl froze on the road, Peter gallantly offered her his coat. Their wedding took place about a year later on March 14, 1965, the newlyweds turned 20.
James Rowling and Anne Volant, parents of JK Rowling
King's Cross Station would later become Rowling's key location. magical world, the starting point that opens the gates to the world of magic. Now the station has a wonderful photo zone where everyone can try to get onto platform 9 3/4. Many iconic scenes from novels take place in this location.
Actors Jude Law and Edward Redmayne, who starred in the prequels of the Harry Potter films - “Fantastic Beasts”
After getting married, the Rowlings moved to South Gloucestershire to Yate, a town with a population of just over 20 thousand people. The head of the family worked as an aeronautical engineer for Rolls Royce in Bristol, Anne worked as a scientific specialist.
Joanne Rowling is born on July 31, 1965. The family called her “Jo”; they only called her “Joan” when they were angry. Less than 2 years later, on June 28, 1967, the couple’s second daughter, Dianne, was born. The Rowlings soon moved to Winterbourne, and when Joe turned 9, they went to Tutshill near Chepstow, south-east Wales. This is the geography of young Joe’s movements.
Ms. Rowling enjoyed reading bedtime stories to her daughters.
Joe's favorite children's books include The Mouse of the Isle of Man by Paul Gallico, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and The White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.
Jo not only listened to fairy tales, but also composed them herself and read them to her little sister. The first was the story about Mr. Rabbit, which the girl wrote at the age of 6, at which time she decided to become a writer. At 11, Joe writes his first more serious work - a novel about 7 cursed diamonds and their owners.
The photo shows the Rowling sisters who look similar to each other.
Jo grew up bookish child: “I was a bookworm, complete with glasses and freckles.” Many celebrities can be called inveterate bookworms, these are both, and.
Joe was also influenced by the autobiography of human rights activist Jessica Mitford, “Hons and Rebels,” which her aunt gave her as a teenager. Rowling admits that from the age of 14, brave Jessica became her heroine.
School: not Hogwarts at all
School years will give Joan many vivid prototypes of future history.
Director primary school at Tatshila St Michael's Primary School, Alfred Dunn will inspire her to create the image of the wise Albus Dumbledore. The writer wrote off the inquisitive Hermione Granger as an 11-year-old. In high school, Rowling, like Hermione, will be a prefect.
Hermione Granger, whose image was portrayed on the silver screen by actress Emma Watson
The prototype of the flying car from the 2nd book about Harry Potter will be the turquoise Ford of Sean Harris, her friend in high school. So the first flying car is not a Tesla Roadster launched into space, but a naughty passenger car invented by JK Rowling)
High school Wyedean School and College, which Jo attended, proudly lists the name of the famous student on Wikipedia. Worked here too research fellow and Joe's mother.
The building of the Wyedean School and College, where the future writer studied
Joan has a misunderstanding with one of the teachers, who divided the class into “smart people” and “fools”, and geographically. Joe got the last desk, the place for the fulmars. But there were also teachers whom the writer remembers with pleasure: they read her works to the whole class and inspired her to continue writing.
Joe's favorite subjects were language and literature, English, of course. Steve Eddy, an English teacher, remembers the student as "non-exceptional, but good in English."
In high school, Rowling took classes in English, French and German at A-levels (the degree of qualification of a school subject), eventually achieving two As and B - not the maximum, but a good result.
When the girl was 15, life was darkened by a terrible diagnosis made to her mother - “multiple sclerosis.” At that time, Anne Rowling was 35 years old.
Studying at the University
In 1982, Rowling, after an unsuccessful attempt to become a student at Oxford University, successfully entered the philology department of the University of Exeter. In her specialty French and Classics, in addition to French Rowling studied ancient Roman and Greek literature.
The course program included a year of study in Paris, where the student shared an apartment with an Italian, a Russian and a Spaniard. Summarizing her stay in the French capital, Jo noted: “This is one of the most beloved cities on earth.”
The writer admits that she did not strain herself in her studies, preferring to read Dickens and Tolkien. She had to pay a £50 fine for overdue books from the student library.
With a bachelor's degree in hand, Rowling left Alma Mater in 1986.
Inspiring work
A fresh graduate moves to London. In the capital, she changes several employers until she gets a job at Amnesty International, where she works until 1990 as a bilingual secretary. The organization defended human rights in French-speaking countries Africa. Sitting in small office, Joan read hastily written letters in which people risking their freedom informed about how the totalitarian regime violates human rights. Joan calls the opportunity to do her part to protect the downtrodden one of the most inspiring experiences.
Potter. Harry Potter: a boy was born on a train
Joe falls in love for the first time, decides to quit his job and move to Manchester with his boyfriend. It is on the train from Manchester to London, which was stopped for 4 hours due to problems, that the image of an orphan boy comes to Joan, with ridiculous glasses and with magical abilities that he is not aware of. Jo named the young wizard Harry Potter: she always liked the name Harry, and the surname “Potter” was borne by a childhood friend. That same day, Jo began writing the first chapters.
It's no surprise that many of Rowling's exciting plot twists and vivid dialogues unfold on the train.
The Hogwarts Express alone is worth it!
The writer shared her birthday with Harry: “the boy who lived” was born on the same day as Joan.
Non-Magic Years: 1990-1997
From the moment the image of Harry Potter appeared until the publication of the first book, 7 years passed. It was a difficult period for the writer.
Mother's death
The last time Jo saw her mother was just before Christmas. 12/30/1990 45-year-old Anne Rowling died of multiple sclerosis. The tragic loss greatly influenced Rowling: in the first book, describing Harry's experiences, she outlined her own feelings of loss loved one. In 2006, the author admitted to reporters from The Telegraph that death, the fear of death, is the leitmotif of the plot: goodie experiences the death of his parents, and the main villain has an obsession with defeating death.
"Ten points to Gryffindor!"
Why do some books become bestsellers while others don't? Hundreds of people are trying to understand the Harry Potter phenomenon. literary critics, bloggers and ordinary readers. When The New York Times commissioned Booker Prize winner Antonia Byatt to write about Potter's success, she summed it up: “Ms. Rowling's world is derivative, pieced together from an intellectual mosaic of derivative motifs from all kinds of children's literature. History is written for people whose creative lives limited to cartoons, soap operas and reality shows.”
However, millions of readers disagree with her opinion. Children, and even the adult generation, recognize themselves in Harry and his friends. Injustice of teachers, boring and difficult subjects, teachers' favorites and class outcasts - all schoolchildren are faced with these concepts. Young readers grow up with the characters; each subsequent book describes a new school year at the school of witchcraft and wizardry.
Harry is devoid of global vices and global virtues; in ordinary life you wouldn’t pay attention to him: a poorly sighted, kind and calm boy.
Our world is filled with images of bright extroverts (books, cartoons, movies, advertising) who easily push with their elbows (“faster, higher, stronger!”). Potter's gentleness and non-aggression, his tolerance for “eccentrics” (Neville, Luna), and at times reflection (remember his “preparation” for the Triwizard Tournament), are revealed - lo and behold! – not as vices, but as virtues. By the way, the ability to hear someone else’s point of view, communicate with different people, finding compromises will play a key role in the 21st century - as evidenced by the rankings of skills in demand in the future.
Young readers like to believe that they, too, can become winners by being themselves. This is the basis for the appeal of another character created by Rowling – the shy Newt Scamander (Scamander).
Some readers do not approve of the "domesticated" Harry Potter, as he is shown in the epilogue of book 7. Rowling herself states that the real hero for her is the one who can return to peaceful life and appreciate its simple joys, forgetting about the barricades.
As of 2018, JK Rowling has written five books for adult audiences:
1 novel “The Casual Vacancy” (2012), based on which the BBC released a television series of the same name (2015).
2 books about private detective Cormoran Strike (more than 7 are planned). The first three novels topped the bestseller charts. The BBC adapted the books into the television series Strike (2017-2018):
- The Cuckoo's Calling (2013)
- Silkworm (2014)
- In the service of evil (2015)
- Deadly White (2018)
The writer publishes novels in the crime fiction genre under the male pseudonym Robert Galbraith, explaining: “I wanted to distance myself from ‘Harry Potter’s mom’ as far as possible.” The author admits that as a child she wanted to be called “Ella Galbraith.” Rowling herself loves to read detective stories by Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, and Margery Allingham.
In vain did the novelist want to hide under a new name, in vain did the publisher compose a biography of Galbraith: “former investigator of the Royal Military Police.” Writer and journalist India Knight, who worked for The Sunday Times, learned that Rowling and Galbraith had the same editor and literary agent. Linguistic analysis confirmed the similarity of Joan's and Robert's texts. After the discovery of authorship, the demand for books increased by 4000%. The writer announced that she would donate royalties from the massive increase in sales to the charitable foundation.
When asked how the writer manages to come up with ideas in two different fictional worlds (Harry Potter's Wizarding World and Cormoran Strike), Rowling assures that she has no problem with this:
“I imagine fictional worlds as different rooms that you can access. These worlds occupy discrete places in my mind, and as soon as I re-enter one of them, the characters are as full of reality as when I left them.”
Personal life: happy with bearded “Harry Potter”
JK Rowling is the mother of three children, a daughter from her first marriage, and a son and daughter from her second. The writer is happy in her second marriage.
When she started dating Neil Murray, a Scottish anesthesiologist, the media commented: “Joe has a boyfriend who looks like Harry Potter.” Her husband, if he resembles a boy wizard, is only with glasses. Having changed his glasses to sunglasses and grown a beard, Neil ceases to look like Potter at all, and rightly so, because Joan could not answer his proposal otherwise than: “you have a beard - I’ll tell you yes!”
Mr. Murray is 6 years younger than Joan (born June 30, 1971), their marriage took place on December 26, 2001. Only close relatives were present at the ceremony, the wedding took place in her house on the banks of the River Tay, estate XIX century Killiechassie House, Scotland. In addition to this mansion, Joan owns a £4.5 million house in Kensington, west London.
The writer changed her maiden name and signs her personal files “Joan Murray.”
03/24/2003 the couple has a son, David (David Gordon Rowling Murray). In the first interview after the birth of the heir, the writer admitted that now that she is nearby loving husband and beloved children, truly happy.
On January 23, 2005, the Murray couple gave birth to a daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray.
Now Neil has given up medical practice and helps his wife with travel and publishing.
Tcreative process: tea+Tchaikovsky
- She used to like to write in cafes, but now her popularity prevents her from writing in public catering establishments. He names a small house in his own garden as his favorite place to write.
- he writes texts with a pen on paper, after which he retypes and sends the manuscript to the publishing house. When there is nothing to write down an idea on, any more or less suitable object will do: a napkin or a receipt. For example, the writer recorded the names of the Hogwarts faculties who came during the flight on a paper bag.
- began writing books about Harry Potter while listening to lyrical concerts by P.I. Tchaikovsky. The composer's music continues to inspire writing, as do classical works by other authors
- “he who gets up early, God gives him”: from 9 am to 15-00 he can work without a long break. During this time, he consumes 8-9 cups of tea and snacks on popcorn. Calling herself "clumsy," Rowling doesn't keep food on hand that could ruin her keyboard.
Portrait of the writer: “Philanthropist, labor activist, recluse, and finally, just a beauty!”
Philanthropist: let there be light!
Rowling was excluded from the list of billionaires for a reason: she is a novelist and generously funds causes close to her, giving millions to single parents, disadvantaged children and centers for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Rowling created the BF in 2000 Volant Charitable Trust(“Volant” is his mother’s maiden name), which supports women, children and adolescents experiencing social deprivation.
In 2005, the writer founded the Charitable Foundation Lumos(“Lumos” is a spell from the world of Harry Potter that creates a source of light), helping mentally retarded children in the poor European countries. In 2017 the organization found loving families for 599 children.
In 2006, Rowling subsidized Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, a new regenerative medicine clinic at the University of Edinburgh, later named after her mother.
Formerly a single mother, Joan heads the BF Gingerbread(“Gingerbread”), helping single parents.
Foundation Comic Relief received £12 million - 80% of the profits from sales of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch: From Antiquity to the Present Day.
In 2009, the auction lot was a chair by JK Rowling, which she personally painted and signed “I wrote Harry Potter while sitting on this chair.” The chair was purchased for $29 thousand, the money also went to charity.
Labor
In 2008 she contributed £1m to the Labor Party and openly supported Prime Minister Gordon Brown's child poverty policies.
In 2014, the year of the Scottish independence referendum, Rowling contributed £1 million to the anti-independence Better Together campaign. Rowling compared some Scottish nationalists to the Death Eaters, the dark wizards from Harry Potter who despise “not purebloods.”
Hermit
Calling herself “thin-skinned,” Rowling doesn’t often give interviews. As of 2011, Joe had about 50 lawsuits against members of the press: tabloids either published photos of her with her daughter on the beach without asking, or wrote fables about her personal life, or did not correctly calculate fees.
The first place on the “media blacklist” is the Daily Mail, which interviewed her first husband. Difficult relationships with journalists are embodied in the image of Rita Skeeter, an employee yellow press, which the reader first becomes acquainted with on the pages of “GP and the Goblet of Fire.”
Popularity and media attention now do not allow Rowling to enjoy the simple pleasures of life: sitting in a cafe, going shopping. She even held the wedding at her home to avoid the annoying attention of reporters. Protecting your personal space is an appropriate practice for a writer who is subject to increased attention and constant criticism. This does not mean dissatisfied fans who found “non-canon” in the next spin-off. Rowling’s work is not approved by the Church; in some states of America, her books were burned because of “calls for witchcraft.” “Until now, not a single child has told me that after reading Harry Potter he decided to devote himself to the occult,” Rowling shares.
Rowling is a Christian and was raised in the Church of England at a young age. , and later joined the Scottish congregation Church of Scotland congregation.
You look good in all your outfits, darling.”
Joan seemed to have stepped off the page. English novels: in the photo she is elegant, sophisticated and discreet.
The writer is not afraid to post selfies online, and they are quite competitive with her professional photographs.
Thanks to Twitter, you can also see the writer’s favorite dog named Bronte.
However, the writer does not post pictures in the “family look” style on Twitter and does not wash dirty linen in public. Maybe everything is really clean there?
Impact on culture
The influence of JK Rowling's books is difficult to overestimate; there is even special term“Pottermania” is a social phenomenon that characterizes people who are passionate about the world of Potteries.
There are references to the boy magician in books and movies: remember the film “The Devil Wears It”, where main character is running off his feet in search of Rowling's new manuscript.
Fans write fan fiction based on the world, designers decorate interiors in the Harry Potter style, creatives come up with quests, programmers develop computer games based on the world, memes and demotivators are composed. The fantasy world attracts, excites, and evokes a desire to create (and make money from it) in thousands of people.
Hogwarts color combinations and paraphernalia are embodied in interior design
Large organizations have also not escaped the influence of the Potter world: in the Amazon office there is a Harry Potter room, and in Google there is a lounge in this style.
A lounge at Google, designed in the style of “The World of Harry Potter”
In 2018, Christmas decorations stylized after the world of Harry Potter were installed in Singapore airport terminals, which they promise will not be removed until February 2019.
And in October 2018, in London, as part of the Urban Art Initiative, an installation was opened at St. Paul’s Cathedral: 9 magic wands, 4.5 m high. The art object, created to draw attention to Rowling’s Charitable Foundation “Lumos”, will be in effect until February 18.
The square near St. Paul's Cathedral in London is additionally illuminated with magic wands until February 2019
After the release of the book series in the UK, the number of children wishing to study in boarding schools and boarding schools increased. The demand for closed educational institutions, which have had a shortage for decades, has been called the “Harry Potter effect.”
Generations have grown up hearing stories about a young magician with a lightning scar on his forehead.
Rowling was able to attract young readers to her books, surrounded by smartphones, tablets and computers. Children read her novels at night, and the books don’t even have pictures!
Her works have changed reading habits around the world. With its help, the phrase “book - best gift"has turned from ironic to truthful! What could be more surprising and magical?
The real name of the famous British writer J.K. Rowling - Joanna Murray. Many people know the author of the seven Harry Potter novels as Robert Galbraith. The writer uses the same pseudonym to write her equally popular detective stories.
Today Joan Kate Rowling is a successful literary figure, outstanding personality with a worldwide reputation, rich woman, screenwriter, film producer, happy wife, caring mother of three children.
NewPackfonJoanna Kate Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in ordinary family, living in Waite (UK). The girl's father (P. J. Rowling) worked at Rolls-Royce, and her mother (J. Ann Rowling) was a housewife. When Joanna was two years old, her sister, Dianna, was born. In 1969 the family migrated to Winterbourne.
The writer's childhood was truly carefree. Numerous photos of the little girl Joanna posted online confirm this fact. And Rowling herself always remembers her childhood with a smile, as it was filled with fun games with her sister, family comfort and the warmth and care of parents. It was they who instilled in the girl a love of literature.
Junktale Little known fact, which many researchers miss, concerns the beginning of the work of a modern star: Joanne Kate Rowling wrote her first story at the age of six, and from that moment the girl did not stop creating.
In 1974, the Rowling family moved to Tutshill, Wells. The change of residence was a real shock for the nine-year-old child, due to the fact that Joanne loved and valued her school friends very much.
After 6 years, a difficult event occurred in the life of the young lady: her mother fell ill. The rapid development of the disease led to the fact that Rowling's mother soon died from multiple sclerosis. Having buried her loved one, in 1990 Joanna decides to leave Tutshill and move to London.
Son Dakika Haberleri Having defended her diploma in French linguistics, the young girl received a position as a secretary at Amnesty International. During the same period, Rowling fell in love for the first time, so a year later she moved to Manchester with her first boyfriend.
One day, on a train heading from Manchester to London, the writer came up with the image of the same boy wizard in round glasses, familiar to all fans - Harry Potter.
"Harry Potter"
The start of Joanna Rowling's career is considered to be the year of publication of the first part of the novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997). The circulation was 1000 copies. In November, this book received the Nesyle Smarties Book Prize. In 1998, Rowling received her first international award for her work, the British Book Award.
After such success and recognition of the writer’s work, an auction was held in the United States, the lot at which was the right to publish “The Philosopher’s Stone.” The American publishing house Scholastic Incorporation won the auction, paying $105,000.
Our Niva In the summer of 1998, a continuation of the novel, “The Chamber of Secrets”, was published; in 2000, the world saw the third part of the novel - “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”. The fourth part, called “The Goblet of Fire,” was able to break all sales records: the volume amounted to 373 thousand books in 24 hours.
In 2003, Rowling wrote and published the fifth part of the sensational saga - “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” In 2005, the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was published, which broke all previous book sales records: the volume amounted to 9 million in 24 hours. In 2007, the seventh part of the novel about a boy wizard, “The Deathly Hallows,” was completed and published.
Slate Magazine To date, all 7 parts of the fantastic saga have been translated into 70 languages. In addition, great films have been made based on JK Rowling’s novels, directed by:
- K. Columbus.
- A. Cuaron.
- D. Yates.
Rowling's other books
In addition to the novels about the little wizard from Hogwarts, the writer became famous thanks to other works.
The only book published under the pseudonym "Newt Scamander". This literary masterpiece is a spin-off story about the main little wizard. It describes events that took place 65 years before the appearance of the boy Harry.
Most of the money received from the sale of the book (about 13 million pounds sterling) was transferred by JK Kate Rowling to the account of the largest children's charity organizations.
The fairy tale “The Bunny Hare and her Cluttering Tree Stump” was written between 2007 and 2009. For this masterpiece of world literature for children, Prince Charles awarded the writer the Order of the British Empire.
JK Rowling - Knight of the Order | Mirror The novel “The Casual Vacancy” is the first work of the genre “ social drama» by JK Kate Rowling for adults and teenagers.
Also, the detective story “The Call (Cry) of the Cuckoo” made a lot of noise.
Personal life of JK Rowling
While working at Amnesty International in her youth, Rowling was looking for a new job. So, after reading an advertisement in The Guardian about a teaching vacancy, J. K. Rowling decided to leave for Portugal.
It was in the city of Porto that Rowling met her first husband, television journalist Jorge Arantes. Their wedding took place in the fall of 1992, and already in July 1993, the young family had a daughter, Jessica-Isabelle Rowling-Arantes.
Jessica, daughter of JK Rowling Despite the complexity of her relationship with her husband, the writer tried her best to keep the family together. Biographers suggest that Rowling was often subjected to scenes of jealousy, domestic violence, and beatings. Such rumors are confirmed by the writer’s confession about how her husband once beat her and then simply kicked her and her daughter out of the house.
In December 1993, Rowling, with Jessica in her arms (and 3 chapters of Harry Potter already written in her bag), was forced to go to Edinburgh (Scotland) to visit her younger sister.
In 1993, Rowling returned to England. Having become a single mother, she applied for state benefits (70 pounds), which became the writer’s only income. Despite her poor financial situation, she continued to work hard.
Because of the bitter personal experience The writer did not dare to start a family for a long time. She devoted all her time to her daughter and, of course, to creativity. Only 8 years later, Joan became a wife again. The writer's chosen one is anesthesiologist Neil-Michael Murray (5 years younger than her).
In 2001, the couple legalized their relationship, and in 2003 their son David was born. In January 2005, the couple had another baby, who was named Mackenzie. In her first interview after giving birth, J.K. Rowling stated that she was truly happy, and the reason for her boundless joy was her beloved children and a sincerely loving man.
- Before the first publication of Harry Potter, it was the American publishing house Scholastic Incorporation that suggested Rowling use a pseudonym. The author chose to add her grandmother’s initials to her name – Kathleen. This is how the pseudonym J. K. Rowling appeared. Even despite her official surname Murray, Joanna continues to write under a pseudonym, which brought her worldwide popularity.
Shazoo - Joanne Kate Rowling admits that today (as when creating her first book) she is inspired by the lyrical concerts of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The writer says that she writes her masterpieces armed with pen and paper. Only after creating a draft by hand, the author types the text on a computer, then sends it to the publishing house.
- If there are no sheets of notepad at hand, she writes down thoughts on any objects. For example, the names of the faculties of the Hogwarts University of Magic were invented by J. K. Rowling on the plane and written down on a disposable paper bag.
JK Rowling today
Today, J. K. Rowling is the world's highest paid author. Rowling's entire literary legacy is valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, and she herself trademark"Harry Potter" - approximately 15 billion dollars.
In the summer of 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child took place in London. Contrary to numerous rumors and fan assumptions, this work is not a full-fledged eighth part of the novel, but only a script theatrical production. The real authors of The Cursed Child are Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.
Cinema The work is new history. It shows actions taking place 19 years after the events described in Deathly Hallows.
In September 2016, new applications were launched on Rowling’s Pottermore portal, which are collections of additions to the main 7 parts of the fantastic saga about the wizard. The plots of these stories tell about several minor characters, about the history of the Azkaban prison and the Hogwarts school of magic.
The Daily Dot In an interview with The Guardian, J.K. Rowling admitted that she is currently working hard on two works. New books will be published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
The writer noted that the “new items” have nothing to do with the character of Newt Scamander from the story “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” which was filmed in America in the fall of 2016.
Bibliography
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- Tales of Beedle the Bard
- Random vacancy
- The Cuckoo's Calling
- Silkworm
- In the service of evil
Celebrity biographies
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31.07.15 12:40
The billionaire writer who gave the world Harry Potter has sold her books about the boy wizard with a circulation of more than 400 million copies. The biography of JK Rowling, who is celebrating her fiftieth birthday today, is quite remarkable: the poor housewife became one of the most... successful women planets! Isn't this magic?
Biography of JK Rowling
Almost like Hermione
London's King's Cross station, from which the express train departs for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, played a huge role in the biography of JK Rowling. It is well known that it was at this large station that inspiration came to the desperate housewife. And on his platform, the romance of Joan’s parents began: English engineer Peter James Rowling met his future wife Anne Wolan. Married in 1965, they became father and mother to Joan (her birthday was July 31 of that year) and Dianne, who is almost two years younger than her sister.
Joan was born near Bristol, and later the family moved to the village of Winterbourne. Already as a schoolgirl, Rowling wrote short fantasy novels - Dianne was her first reader. The writer herself claims that the “nerdy” Hermione is almost her self-portrait. Rowling also had an enviable thirst for knowledge; she passed exams in French and English with “excellent” marks, and in German with “good” marks. But everything was difficult with the parents: my mother was already ill then, and my father did not understand his daughter, who adored Tolkien and Dickens.
Modest secretary
Rowling dreamed of Oxford, but was only able to enter the University of Exeter, and studied for a year in Paris (as an exchange student). She received degrees in philology and French and settled in London. The first job in JK Rowling's biography was the Amnesty International organization: an excellent student and a smart girl got a modest position as a secretary. In a few years she will leave this job and move with her boyfriend to Manchester. It was on the Manchester-London Express in 1990 that strange fantasies about a little magician from a school of witchcraft came into Joan's head.
Depression and unbridled inspiration
Returning home, she immediately started writing a novel. This inspiration coincided with a difficult period in JK Rowling's personal life: in December 1990, her mother, who had been battling multiple sclerosis for many years, was overcome by illness. This is where, in the first book about Harry, the hero’s painful thoughts about the death of his parents come from.
For some time, Joan moved to the capital of Portugal - she taught English and at the same time worked on a book. In Porto, she met her first husband, but the marriage with journalist Arantes lasted just over a year, the British woman remained with her baby daughter and returned to her homeland. At the end of 1993, they ended up in Edinburgh, Scotland. A few chapters of the novel and a handful of personal belongings - that was all the wealth of the future celebrity at that time. No work, no prospects... Rowling was overtaken by depression, but the writer was also able to “use” it in the future: Joan described her heart-sucking melancholy in her third novel (this feeling covers those who encounter dementors).
A bestseller born... in a cafe
The husband tried to take his daughter away, but Rowling protected herself from him with a court order. Why did she write to her Harry in a cafe? She explains it simply: her daughter fell asleep well on fresh air, so they walked. Having put the baby to sleep, the young mother sat down at the table and scribbled sheet after sheet. She lived on benefits, and after finishing The Philosopher's Stone in the summer of 1995, she got a job at a college at the University of Edinburgh.
After unsuccessful attempts to get the novel published (a dozen publishers refused to publish the newcomer’s work), Rowling was finally able to come to an agreement with the editor of the London publishing house, Cunningham: his daughter liked the first chapter, which her dad gave her to read “as a test.” Joan was given an advance of 1.5 thousand pounds. Later, the debutante managed to receive an 8,000-dollar grant, so she could continue to create. Thus began the great epic of writing Potter.
Record after record
The same publisher (Bloomsbury) released a thousand copies to begin with. The book received many awards and was published in the States. Joan was able to buy a house in Edinburgh, where she settled with her daughter. In the summer of 1998, the second book about Harry was published, a year and a half later - “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”; these two books, like the debut, won the prestigious Smarties Award. “Goblet of Fire” was able to break sales records, being released on both sides of the ocean - in the UK and the States (more than 372 thousand on the first day).
Three years later, The Order of the Phoenix was released - everyone will agree that this is the most unassuming of the seven books. Evil tongues claimed: this is a creative crisis. The author did not agree with this statement. In the summer of 2005, another record-breaking book was published - about the Half-Blood Prince. At the beginning of 2007, the seventh part (“Deathly Hallows”) was completed. Its sale began in July of the same year. The first day brought a pleasant surprise: 11 million copies were sold instantly.
Now the Harry Potter brand, according to the most conservative estimates, is worth more than $15 billion, and the film adaptations have become commercial hits. Joan controlled the filming process so that there were no gross discrepancies with her books. Although the writer promised that she would no longer publish novels about Harry, she broke her promise. A book about the adult heroes of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child series has been published.
Other projects and charity
In 2012, a novel by a British woman not related to the Potter universe, “The Casual Vacancy,” was published. And although its circulation exceeded a million copies, it did not see the success of books about Harry.
Joan wanted to intrigue the public and published the detective story “The Cuckoo's Calling” under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. No one believed that this was a newcomer, and then one of the writer’s acquaintances revealed her secret. The Deciphered celebrity published the second book in this series (about detective Strike) in the summer of 2014. The Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, has been successfully filmed. Rowling herself wrote the script for this film with Redmayne and Farrell. Another big-budget franchise awaits us.
Rowling, who herself has fully experienced poverty, devotes a lot of effort and money to charity, takes financial part in the research of the terrible disease that claimed the life of her mother - multiple sclerosis. She has already donated more than £10 million to these causes. The writer also has her own fund, money from which goes to socially disadvantaged families.
Personal life of JK Rowling
Unsuccessful marriage
Joan got married for the first time in the fall of 1992 - her husband was the Portuguese Jorge Arantes, whom the future billionaire first met in a bar. JK Rowling's personal life turned into a nightmare for a while: Jorge had a hot temper.
While they were still dating, the British woman had a miscarriage, and in July 1993, the couple had a daughter, Jessica Isabelle. When, just over three months later, Joan and Jorge had a huge fight, he kicked his wife out of the house. The divorce was finalized later.
Loving husband and three children
The writer was in no hurry to start a family again - all her time was occupied by creativity. But in December 2001, she became a wife again. Her chosen one is doctor Neil Michael Murray (he is almost five years younger than Joan).
