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Like that
of her own character, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling's life has the luster
of a fairy tale. Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny
Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, Rowling wrote Harry Potter and
the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a café during her daughter's naps —
and it was Harry Potter that rescued her. First, the Scottish Arts
Council gave her a grant to finish the book. After its sale to
Bloomsbury (UK) and Scholastic Books, the accolades began to pile up.
Harry Potter won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year,
and the Smarties Prize, and rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic.
Book rights have been sold to England, France, Germany, Italy, Holland,
Greece, Finland, Denmark, Spain and Sweden.
A graduate of Exeter University, a teacher, and then an unemployed
single parent, Rowling wrote Harry Potter when "I was very low, and I
had to achieve something. Without the challenge, I would have gone stark
raving mad." But Rowling has always written; her first book was called
"Rabbit." "I was about six, and I haven't stopped scribbling since."
For Rowling, the change in her fortunes has been slightly
bewildering. But her daughter has no doubt about her mother's new
career: when asked what mommies do, she replies without hesitation,
"Mommies write!"
Visit her web site
here! |
Vist the USA site here!
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Scots Women
in History | Significant
Scots
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