Author J K Rowling's complete list of books and series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability.
Neil Murray ( m. 2001) Children 3 Signature Website Joanne Rowling, ( 'rolling'; born 31 July 1965), writing under the pen names J. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, is a British, and, best known for writing the fantasy series. The books have won multiple awards, and sold more than 500 million copies, becoming the.
They have also been the basis for, over which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts and was a producer on the final films in the series. Born in, Gloucestershire, England, Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series while on a delayed train from to London in 1990. The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband and relative poverty until the in the series, was published in 1997.
There were six sequels, of which the last, was released in 2007. Since then, Rowling has written five books for adult readers: (2012) and—under the Robert Galbraith—the novels (2013), (2014), (2015), and (2018). Rowling has lived a ' life story, in which she progressed from living on state benefits to being the world's first billionaire author. She lost her billionaire status after giving away much of her earnings to charity, but remains one of the wealthiest people in the world. She is the United Kingdom's bestselling living author, with sales in excess of £238M.
The 2016 estimated Rowling's fortune at £600 million, ranking her as the joint 197th richest person in the UK. Named her a runner-up for its 2007, noting the social, moral, and she has given. In October 2010, Rowling was named the 'Most Influential Woman in Britain' by leading magazine editors. She has supported charities, including, and, and launched her own charity,. Contents. Name Although she writes under the pen name J.
Rowling, her name, before her remarriage, was Joanne Rowling. Anticipating that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, her publishers asked that she use two initials rather than her full name. As she had no middle name, she chose K (for Kathleen) as the second initial of her pen name, from her paternal grandmother. She calls herself Jo. Following her remarriage, she has sometimes used the name Joanne Murray when conducting personal business. During the she gave evidence under the name of Joanne Kathleen Rowling and her entry in lists her name also as Joanne Kathleen Rowling. Life and career Birth and family.
Rowling's childhood home, Gloucestershire Rowling's sister Dianne was born at their home when Rowling was 23 months old. The family moved to the nearby village when Rowling was four. As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories which she frequently read to her sister.
Aged nine, Rowling moved to in the Gloucestershire village of, close to, Wales. When she was a young teenager, her great-aunt gave her a copy of 's autobiography,. Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling read all of her books.
Rowling has said that her teenage years were unhappy. Her home life was complicated by her mother's diagnosis with and a strained relationship with her father, with whom she is not on speaking terms. Rowling later said that she based the character of on herself when she was eleven.
Sean Harris, her best friend in the, owned a turquoise which she says inspired a flying version that appeared in. Like many teenagers, she became interested in pop music, listening to, and and adopted the look of the latter with back-combed hair and black eyeliner, a look that she would still sport when beginning university.
Education As a child, Rowling attended, a school founded by and education reformer. Her headmaster at St Michael's, Alfred Dunn, has been suggested as the inspiration for the Harry Potter headmaster. She attended secondary school at, where her mother worked in the science department. Steve Eddy, her first secondary school English teacher, remembers her as 'not exceptional' but 'one of a group of girls who were bright, and quite good at English'. Rowling took in English, French and German, achieving two As and a B and was. In 1982, Rowling took the entrance exams for but was not accepted and earned a in French and at the. Martin Sorrell, a French professor at Exeter, remembers 'a quietly competent student, with a denim jacket and dark hair, who, in academic terms, gave the appearance of doing what was necessary'.
Rowling recalls doing little work, preferring to read. After a year of study in Paris, Rowling graduated from Exeter in 1986. In 1988, Rowling wrote a short essay about her time studying Classics titled 'What was the Name of that Nymph Again? Or Greek and Roman Studies Recalled'; it was published by the University of Exeter's journal Pegasus. Inspiration and mother's death After working as a researcher and bilingual secretary in London for, Rowling moved with her then boyfriend to Manchester, where she worked at the Chamber of Commerce. In 1990, while she was on a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry 'came fully formed' into her mind.
When she had reached her flat, she began to write immediately. In December, Rowling's mother, Anne, died after ten years suffering from. Rowling was writing Harry Potter at the time and had never told her mother about it.
Her mother's death heavily affected Rowling's writing, and she channelled her own feelings of loss by writing about Harry's own feelings of loss in greater detail in the first book. Marriage, divorce, and single parenthood.
Rowling at the, 1999 Its sequel, was published in July 1998 and again Rowling won the Smarties Prize. In December 1999, the third novel, won the Smarties Prize, making Rowling the first person to win the award three times running. She later withdrew the fourth Harry Potter novel from contention to allow other books a fair chance. In January 2000, Prisoner of Azkaban won the inaugural, though it lost the Book of the Year prize to 's translation of. The fourth book, was released simultaneously in the UK and the US on 8 July 2000 and broke sales records in both countries.
372,775 copies of the book were sold in its first day in the UK, almost equalling the number Prisoner of Azkaban sold during its first year. In the US, the book sold three million copies in its first 48 hours, smashing all records. Rowling said that she had had a crisis while writing the novel and had to rewrite one chapter many times to fix a problem with the plot. Rowling was named Author of the Year in the 2000 British Book Awards. A wait of three years occurred between the release of Goblet of Fire and the fifth Harry Potter novel,.
This gap led to press speculation that Rowling had developed, speculations she denied. Rowling later said that writing the book was a chore, that it could have been shorter, and that she ran out of time and energy as she tried to finish it. The sixth book, was released on 16 July 2005. It too broke all sales records, selling nine million copies in its first 24 hours of release.
In 2006, Half-Blood Prince received the prize at the. The title of the seventh and final Harry Potter book was announced on 21 December 2006 as. In February 2007 it was reported that Rowling wrote on a bust in her hotel room at the in Edinburgh that she had finished the seventh book in that room on 11 January 2007.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on 21 July 2007 (0:01 ) and broke its predecessor's record as the fastest-selling book of all time. It sold 11 million copies in the first day of release in the United Kingdom and United States. The book's last chapter was one of the earliest things she wrote in the entire series. Potter queue Harry Potter is now a global brand worth an estimated US$15 billion, and the last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history. The series, totalling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages. The Harry Potter books have also gained recognition for sparking an interest in reading among the young at a time when children were thought to be abandoning books for computers and television, although it is reported that despite the huge uptake of the books, adolescent reading has continued to decline.
Harry Potter films. Main article: In October 1998, purchased the film rights to the first two novels for a seven-figure sum. A film adaptation of was released on 16 November 2001, and on 15 November 2002. Both films were directed. The film version of was released on 4 June 2004, directed. The fourth film, was directed by, and released on 18 November 2005. The film of was released on 11 July 2007.
Directed, and wrote the screenplay, having taken over the position from. Was released on 15 July 2009. David Yates directed again, and Kloves returned to write the script. Filmed the final instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in two segments, with being released on 19 November 2010 and being released on 15 July 2011. Yates directed both films. Took considerable notice of Rowling's desires and thoughts when drafting her contract. One of her principal stipulations was the films be shot in Britain with an all-British cast, which has been generally adhered to.
Rowling also demanded that, the victor in the race to their products to the film series, donate US$18 million to the American charity, as well as several community charity programs. The first four, sixth, seventh, and eighth films were scripted by Steve Kloves; Rowling assisted him in the writing process, ensuring that his scripts did not contradict future books in the series. She told and certain secrets about their characters before they were revealed in the books. asked her if Harry died at any point in the series; Rowling answered him by saying, 'You have a death scene', thereby not explicitly answering the question. Director was approached to direct the first film, but dropped out. The press has repeatedly claimed that Rowling played a role in his departure, but Rowling stated that she had no say in who directed the films and would not have vetoed Spielberg. Rowling's first choice for the director had been member, but Warner Bros.
Wanted a family-friendly film and chose Columbus. Rowling had gained some creative control on the films, reviewing all the scripts as well as acting as a producer on the final two-part instalment, Deathly Hallows. Rowling, producers and, along with directors, and collected the Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema at the 2011 in honour of the Harry Potter film franchise. In September 2013, Warner Bros. Announced an 'expanded creative partnership' with Rowling, based on a planned series of films about her character, author of.
The was released in November 2016 and is set roughly 70 years before the events of the main series. In 2016, it was announced that the series would consist of five films. The second, was released in November 2018. Rowling scripted and co-produced both films. Financial success In 2004, named Rowling as the first person to become a US-dollar billionaire by writing books, the second-richest female entertainer and the 1,062nd richest person in the world.
Rowling disputed the calculations and said she had plenty of money, but was not a billionaire. The 2016 estimated Rowling's fortune at £600 million, ranking her as the joint 197th richest person in the UK. In 2012, Forbes removed Rowling from their rich list, claiming that her US$160 million in charitable donations and the high tax rate in the UK meant she was no longer a billionaire.
In February 2013 she was assessed as the 13th most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by on. In 2001, Rowling purchased a 19th-century, on the banks of the, near, in. Rowling also owns a £4.5 million house in, west London, on a street with 24-hour security. In 2017, Rowling was worth an estimated £650 million according to the. She was named the most highly paid author in the world with earnings of £72 million ($95 million) a year by Forbes in 2017. Remarriage and family On 26 December 2001, Rowling married Neil Murray (born 30 June 1971), a Scottish doctor, in a private ceremony at her home, near Aberfeldy. Their son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, was born on 24 March 2003.
Shortly after Rowling began writing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she ceased working on the novel to care for David in his early infancy. Rowling is a friend of, wife of former prime minister, whom she met when they collaborated on a charitable project. When Sarah Brown's son Fraser was born in 2003, Rowling was one of the first to visit her in hospital.
Rowling's youngest child, daughter Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, to whom she dedicated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was born on 23 January 2005. In October 2012, a magazine article stated that the Rowling family lived in a seventeenth-century Edinburgh house, concealed at the front by tall hedges. Prior to October 2012, Rowling lived near the author, who later said she was quiet and introspective, and that she seemed in her element with children. As of June 2014, the family resides in Scotland. The Casual Vacancy In July 2011, Rowling parted company with her agent, Christopher Little, moving to a new agency founded by one of his staff, Neil Blair. On 23 February 2012, his agency, the Blair Partnership, announced on its website that Rowling was set to publish a new book targeted at adults. In a press release, Rowling said that her new book would be quite different from Harry Potter.
In April 2012, Little, Brown and Company announced that the book was titled and would be released on 27 September 2012. Rowling gave several interviews and made appearances to promote The Casual Vacancy, including at the London, the, and the Lennoxlove Book Festival. In its first three weeks of release, The Casual Vacancy sold over 1 million copies worldwide. On 3 December 2012, it was announced that the would be adapting The Casual Vacancy into.
Rowling's agent, Neil Blair acted as producer, through his independent production company and with Rick Senat serving as executive producer. Rowling collaborated on the adaptation, serving as an executive producer for the series. The series aired in three parts from 15 February to 1 March 2015. Cormoran Strike. For the material written for and other charities, see.
Rowling has said it is unlikely she will write any more books in the Harry Potter series. In October 2007 she stated that her future work was unlikely to be in the fantasy genre. On 1 October 2010, in an interview with, Rowling stated a new book on the saga might happen. In 2007, Rowling stated that she planned to write an encyclopaedia of Harry Potter 's consisting of various unpublished material and notes. Any profits from such a book would be given to charity. During a news conference at Hollywood's in 2007, Rowling, when asked how the encyclopaedia was coming along, said, 'It's not coming along, and I haven't started writing it.
I never said it was the next thing I'd do.' At the end of 2007, Rowling said that the encyclopaedia could take up to ten years to complete. In June 2011, Rowling announced that future Harry Potter projects, and all electronic downloads, would be concentrated in a new website, called. The site includes 18,000 words of information on characters, places and objects in the Harry Potter universe. In October 2015, Rowling announced via Pottermore that a two-part play she had co-authored with playwrights Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, was the 'eighth Harry Potter story' and that it would focus on the life of Harry Potter's youngest son Albus after the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
On 28 October 2015, the first round of tickets went on sale and sold out in several hours. Philanthropy In 2000, Rowling established the Volant Charitable Trust, which uses its annual budget of £5.1 million to combat poverty and social inequality. The fund also gives to organisations that aid children, one-parent families, and multiple sclerosis research. Anti-poverty and children's welfare Rowling, once a single parent, is now president of the charity (originally One Parent Families), having become their first Ambassador in 2000.
Rowling collaborated with Sarah Brown to write a book of children's stories to aid One Parent Families. In 2001, the UK anti-poverty fundraiser asked three best-selling British authors – cookery writer and TV presenter, creator, and Rowling – to submit booklets related to their most famous works for publication.
Rowling's two booklets, and, are ostensibly facsimiles of books found in the library. Since going on sale in March 2001, the books have raised £15.7 million for the fund. The £10.8 million they have raised outside the UK have been channelled into a newly created International Fund for Children and Young People in Crisis. In 2002, Rowling contributed a foreword to Magic, an anthology of fiction published by Bloomsbury Publishing, helping to raise money for the National Council for One Parent Families.
In 2005, Rowling and founded the Children's High Level Group (now ). In January 2006, Rowling went to to highlight the use of caged beds in for children.
To further support the CHLG, Rowling auctioned one of seven handwritten and illustrated copies of, a series of fairy tales referred to in. The book was purchased for £1.95 million by online bookseller on 13 December 2007, becoming the most expensive modern book ever sold at auction. Rowling gave away the remaining six copies to those who have a close connection with the Harry Potter books.
In 2008, Rowling agreed to publish the book with the proceeds going to Lumos. On 1 June 2010 , Lumos launched an annual initiative – Light a Birthday Candle for Lumos. In November 2013, Rowling handed over all earnings from the sale of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, totalling nearly £19 million. In July 2012, Rowling was featured at the in London, where she read a few lines from 's as part of a tribute to. An inflatable representation of and other children's literary characters accompanied her reading.
Multiple sclerosis Rowling has contributed money and support for research and treatment of, from which her mother suffered before her death in 1990. In 2006, Rowling contributed a substantial sum toward the creation of a new Centre for Regenerative Medicine at, later named the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic. In 2010, she donated a further £10 million to the centre. For reasons unknown, Scotland, Rowling's country of adoption, has the highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world. In 2003, Rowling took part in a campaign to establish a national standard of care for MS sufferers. In April 2009, she announced that she was withdrawing her support for Scotland, citing her inability to resolve an ongoing feud between the organisation's northern and southern branches that had sapped morale and led to several resignations. Other philanthropic work In May 2008, bookseller asked Rowling and 12 other writers (, and ) to compose a short piece of their own choosing on a single card, which would then be sold at auction in aid of the charities Dyslexia Action and English.
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Rowling's contribution was an 800-word that concerns Harry's father, and godfather, and takes place three years before Harry was born. The cards were collated and sold for charity in book form in August 2008. On 1 and 2 August 2006, she read alongside and at in New York City. Profits from the event were donated to the Haven Foundation, a charity that aids artists and performers left uninsurable and unable to work, and the medical NGO. In May 2007, Rowling pledged a donation reported as over £250,000 to a reward fund started by the tabloid for the safe return of a young British girl, who disappeared in Portugal. Rowling, along with, and, wrote an introduction to a collection of Gordon Brown's speeches, the proceeds of which were donated to the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory. After her exposure as the true author of The Cuckoo's Calling led to a massive increase in sales, Rowling announced she would donate all her royalties to the, claiming she had always intended to but never expected the book to be a best-seller.
Rowling is a member of both English PEN and Scottish PEN. She was one of 50 authors to contribute to First Editions, Second Thoughts, a charity auction for English PEN. Each author hand annotated a first-edition copy of one of their books, in Rowling's case, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The book was the highest-selling lot of the event and fetched £150,000 ($228,600). Rowling is a supporter of the, which runs the Toe by Toe Reading Plan and the Shannon Reading Plan in prisons across Britain, helping and giving tutoring to prisoners who cannot read.
See also: Rowling has named communist and activist as her 'most influential writer' saying, 'Jessica Mitford has been my heroine since I was 14 years old, when I overheard my formidable great-aunt discussing how Mitford had run away at the age of 19 to fight with the Reds in the ', and claims what inspired her about Mitford was that she was 'incurably and instinctively rebellious, brave, adventurous, funny and irreverent, she liked nothing better than a good fight, preferably against a pompous and hypocritical target'. Rowling has described as her favourite author, calling her favourite book in. As a child, Rowling has said her early influences included by, by,.
Views Politics. See also: and Rowling is known for her political views. In September 2008, on the eve of the, Rowling announced that she had donated 1 million to the, and publicly endorsed Labour Prime Minister over challenger, praising Labour's policies on child poverty. Rowling is a close friend of, wife of Gordon Brown, whom she met when they collaborated on a charitable project for One Parent Families.
Rowling discussed the with the Spanish-language newspaper in February 2008, stating that the election would have a profound effect on the rest of the world. She also said that and would be 'extraordinary' in the White House. In the same interview, Rowling identified as her hero. In April 2010, Rowling published an article in, in which she criticised Cameron's plan to encourage married couples to stay together by offering them a £150 annual tax credit: 'Nobody who has ever experienced the reality of poverty could say 'it's not the money, it's the message'.
When your flat has been broken into, and you cannot afford a locksmith, it is the money. When you are two pence short of a tin of baked beans, and your child is hungry, it is the money.
When you find yourself contemplating shoplifting to get nappies, it is the money.' As a resident of Scotland, Rowling was eligible to vote in the 2014, and campaigned for the 'No' vote. She donated £1 million to the anti-independence campaign (run by her former neighbour ), the largest donation it had received at the time. In a blog post, Rowling explained that an open letter from Scottish medical professionals raised problems with First Minister 's plans for a common research funding. Rowling compared some Scottish Nationalists with the, characters from Harry Potter who are scornful of those without pure blood.
On 22 October 2015 a letter was published in signed by Rowling (along with over 150 other figures from arts and politics) opposing the cultural boycott of Israel, and announcing the creation of a network for dialogue, called Culture for Coexistence. Rowling later explained her position in more detail, saying that although she opposed most of 's actions she did not think the cultural boycott would bring about the removal of Israel's leader or help improve the situation in Israel and Palestine. In June 2016, Rowling campaigned for the United Kingdom to stay in the, in the run up to the, stating on her website that, 'I'm the mongrel product of this European continent and I'm an internationalist. I was raised by a Francophile mother whose family was proud of their part-French heritage. My values are not contained or proscribed by borders. The absence of a visa when I cross the channel has symbolic value to me.
I might not be in my house, but I'm still in my hometown.' Rowling expressed concern that 'racists and bigots' are directing parts of the Leave campaign. In a blog post, she added: 'How can a retreat into selfish and insecure individualism be the right response when Europe faces genuine threats, when the bonds that tie us are so powerful, when we have come so far together? How can we hope to conquer the enormous challenges of terrorism and climate change without cooperation and collaboration?' Rowling has been critical of Leader, accusing Corbyn of tolerating. Main article: Rowling, her publishers, and, the owner of the rights to the, have taken numerous legal actions to protect their copyright.
The worldwide popularity of the Harry Potter series has led to the appearance of a number of locally produced, unauthorised sequels and other derivative works, sparking efforts to ban or contain them. Another area of legal dispute involves a series of injunctions obtained by Rowling and her publishers to prohibit anyone from reading her books before their official release date. The injunction drew fire from civil liberties and free speech campaigners and sparked debates over the 'right to read'.
Awards and honours.