Life of the Famous J.K. Rowling

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noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom.[10] In October 2010, J. K. Rowling was named 'Most Influential Woman in Britain' by leading magazine editors.[11] She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, and Lumos (formerly the Children's High Level Group).

Name

Although she writes under the pen name "J. K. Rowling", pronounced like rolling (/'ro?l??/),[12] her name when her first Harry Potter book was published was simply "Joanne Rowling". Fearing that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, her publishers demanded that she use two initials, rather than her full name. As she had no middle name, she chose K as the second initial of her pen name, from her paternal grandmother Kathleen Ada Bulgen Rowling.[13][14] She calls herself "Jo" and has said, "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was young, ...

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of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales.[18] When she was a young teenager, her great aunt, who Rowling said "taught classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable kind", gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels.[24] Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling subsequently read all of her books.[25]

She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother, Anne, had worked as a technician in the Science Department.[26] Rowling has said of her adolescence, "Hermione [A bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly ...

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