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Henrie's Recipes
From rags to riches
Deborah Haynes
Posted Fri, 15 Jul 2005
In a rags-to-riches story worthy of Harry Potter himself, British author JK Rowling has become as famous and mystical as the teenage wizard she introduced to the world almost a decade ago.
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Joanne Kathleen Rowling (39) is the force behind the record-breaking Potter series, with her sixth and penultimate book, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince', poised to become the fastest selling book in history.
Her previous five novels about Potter's adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and his struggle against evil Lord Voldemort have enchanted young and old alike, selling more than 250 million copies worldwide and being translated into more than 60 languages.
Three films based on the series were also instant smashes, with a fourth, 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', due for release in November.
Penniless single mother
It's all a long way from when the author was a penniless single mother in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, struggling to make ends meet. Despite her celebrity status, however, Rowling chooses to shy away from the spotlight.
As a girl, she grew up with her younger sister Di near Bristol, western England, and Chepstow in Wales. Their father was an engineer, their late mother was half-French, half-Scottish.
In her own words she was "a swotty little git in National Health spectacles", yet was voted head girl at her local school.
At university, Rowling studied French and went on to hold a series of jobs, including working for the human rights agency Amnesty International.
Inspired to write book in 1990
It was in 1990, waiting on a delayed train, that she was inspired to write Harry Potter. Writing had been something Rowling had done since the age of six.
It took her five years to complete the first book, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', and another two before it was published in 1997.
By that time she had been through the emotional mill.
Her mother died aged 45 of multiple sclerosis. Rowling moved to Portugal to teach English, married a local journalist and had a daughter, Jessica.
But the marriage fell apart and she moved to a small flat in Edinburgh.
She would walk the street pushing Jessica in a buggy until she was asleep, then sit in a nearby cafe writing furiously until her daughter woke up.
Living on benefits
"I had no intention, no desire, to remain on benefits," she recalled in one of her rare interviews. "It's the most soul-destroying thing.
"I don't want to dramatise but there were nights when, though Jessica ate, I didn't."
Much of book written in café
The impoverished Rowling spent much of her time scribbling her book by hand at Nicolson's Cafe — in the south of the city and, possibly coincidentally, near to a street called Potterow — which has since been converted into a Chinese restaurant called the Buffet King.
"We did not realise this place had such a famous reputation when we bought it two years ago," said the current manager Eddie Ng.
"This place used to be owned by J.K. Rowling's brother-in-law. She did not have any money at the time so she came in here every day to eat, drink coffee and write," he said, pointing to a small table by a window where the author would have sat. It overlooks a cobbled street and an unremarkable row of grey, stone shops and houses.
Despite the hardship, Rowling knew she had the talent and eventually it paid off.
Success
Her first book was a runaway success. The second confirmed her reputation. After the third, 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban', she had become a literary legend and enjoyed record sales with the fourth and the fifth, 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'.
Many of the characters are based on people she grew up with. Harry's swotty school friend Hermione, she has said, is herself. The name Potter comes from a friend with whom she played at witches and wizards as a child.
Rowling's novels have now been translated into more than 50 languages, making her richer than Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
Dreams of obscurity
With millions of people across the globe singing her praises, however, Rowling treasures her privacy and hopes that, when all seven books are published, she will "fade back into blissful obscurity".
At the end of 2001, she remarried in a secret Scottish ceremony. Her husband is a doctor, Neil Murray, and she gave birth to David, her second child, in March 2003.
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AFP
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