J. K. Rowling

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Joanne Rowling (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;Template:Sfn born 31 July 1965), better known by her pen name Template:Nowrap, is the British novelist who wrote Harry Potter, a seven-volume series about a young wizard. Published from 1997 to 2007, the fantasy novels are the best-selling book series in history, with over 600 million copies sold. They have been translated into 84 languages and have spawned a global media franchise including films and video games. She writes Cormoran Strike, an ongoing crime fiction series, under the alias Robert Galbraith.

Born in Yate, Gloucestershire, Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in 1990 when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series. The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, the birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband, and relative poverty until the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in 1997. Six sequels followed, concluding with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007). By 2008, Forbes had named her the world's highest-paid author.

The novels follow a boy called Harry Potter as he attends Hogwarts (a school for wizards), and battles Lord Voldemort. Death and the divide between good and evil are the central themes of the series. Its influences include Bildungsroman (the coming-of-age genre), school stories, fairy tales, and Christian allegory. The series revived fantasy as a genre in the children's market, spawned a host of imitators, and inspired an active fandom. Critical reception has been more mixed. Many reviewers see Rowling's writing as conventional; some regard her portrayal of gender and social division as regressive. There were also religious debates over the Harry Potter series.

Rowling has won many accolades for her work. She was named to the Order of the British Empire and was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature and philanthropy. Harry Potter brought her wealth and recognition, which she has used to advance philanthropic endeavours and political causes. She established the Volant Charitable Trust in 2000, and co-founded the charity Lumos in 2005. Rowling's philanthropy centres on medical causes and supporting at-risk women and children. In 2025, Forbes estimated that Rowling's charitable giving exceeded US$200 million. She has also donated to the British Labour Party, and opposed Scottish independence and Brexit.

From 2019, Rowling began making public remarks about transgender people, opposing attempts to replace the legal definition of birth sex with gender self identity. She has been condemned as transphobic by LGBTQ rights groups, some Harry Potter fans, and various other critics, including academics. This has affected her public image and relationship with readers and colleagues, altering the way they engage with her works.

Name

Although she writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling, before her remarriage her name was Joanne Rowling with no middle name,Template:Sfn nicknamed Jo.Template:Sfn Staff at Bloomsbury Publishing suggested that she use two initials rather than her full name, anticipating that young boys – their target audience – would not want to read a book written by a woman.Template:Sfn She chose K as the second initial, from her paternal grandmother Kathleen Rowling, and because of the ease of pronunciation of the two consecutive letters.Template:Sfn Following her 2001 remarriage,Template:Sfn she has sometimes used the name Joanne Murray when conducting personal business.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Life and career

Early life and family

A sign reading "Platform Template:Frac" with half of a luggage trolley installed beneath, at the interior of King's Cross railway station.
Rowling's parents met on a train from King's Cross; her portal to the magical world is "Platform Template:Frac" at King's Cross.Template:Sfn

Joanne Rowling was born on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire,<ref name="AboutJKR" />Template:Efn to a middle-class family.Template:Sfn Her parents Anne (née Volant) and Peter ("Pete") James Rowling had met the previous year on a train, sharing a trip from King's Cross station, London, to their naval postings at Arbroath, Scotland. Rowling's mother was with the Wrens and her father with the Royal Navy.Template:Sfn Her mother was of Scottish and French ancestry.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> Pete Rowling was the son of a machine-tool setter who later opened a grocery shop.Template:Sfn Pete and Anne married on 14 March 1965Template:Sfn<ref name="OldBio" /> and settled in Yate,Template:Sfn where Pete started work as an assembly-line production workerTemplate:Sfn and eventually worked his way into management as a chartered engineer.Template:Sfn Anne Rowling later worked as a science technician.Template:Sfn Neither of Rowling's parents attended university.Template:Sfn Rowling is two years older than her sister, Dianne.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

When she was four, Rowling's family moved to Winterbourne, Gloucestershire.<ref name="OldBio" />Template:Sfn She began at St Michael's Church of England Primary School in Winterbourne when she was five.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The Rowlings lived near a family called Potter – a name Rowling always liked.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Rowling's mother liked to read and the family's homes were filled with books.Template:Sfn Her father read The Wind in the Willows to his daughters,Template:Sfn while her mother introduced them to the animals in Richard Scarry's books.Template:Sfn Rowling's first attempt at writing, a story called "Rabbit" composed when she was six, was inspired by Scarry's creatures.Template:Sfn

When Rowling was about nine, the family purchased the historic Church Cottage in Tutshill.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn In 1974, Rowling began attending the nearby Church of England School.Template:Sfn Biographer Sean Smith describes her teacher as a "battleaxe"Template:Sfn who "struck fear into the hearts of the children";Template:Sfn Rowling's teacher seated her in "dunces' row" after she performed poorly on an arithmetic test.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn In 1975, Rowling joined a Brownies pack. Its special events and parties, and the pack groups (Fairies, Pixies, Sprites, Elves, Gnomes and Imps) provided a magical world away from her stern teacher.Template:Sfn When she was elevenTemplate:Sfn or twelve, she wrote a short story, "The Seven Cursed Diamonds".Template:Sfn She later described herself during this period as "the epitome of a bookish child – short and squat, thick National Health glasses, living in a world of complete daydreams".Template:Sfn

Secondary school and university

File:Church Cottage, Tutshill.jpg
Church Cottage, Tutshill, Gloucs, Rowling's childhood home

Rowling's secondary school was Wyedean School and College, a state school she began attending at the age of elevenTemplate:Sfn and where she was bullied.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Rowling was inspired by her favourite teacher, Lucy Shepherd, who taught the importance of structure and precision in writing.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Smith describes her as "intelligent yet shy".Template:Sfn Her teacher Dale Neuschwander was impressed by her imagination.Template:Sfn When she was a young teenager, Rowling's great-aunt gave her Hons and Rebels, the autobiography of the civil rights activist Jessica Mitford,Template:Sfn who became Rowling's heroine.<ref name="Fraser-2002">Template:Cite news</ref>

Anne had a strong influence on her daughter.Template:Sfn Early in Rowling's life, the support of her mother and sister instilled confidence and enthusiasm for storytelling.Template:Sfn Anne was a creative and accomplished cook,Template:SfnTemplate:Efn who helped lead her daughters' Brownie activities,Template:Sfn and took a job in the chemistry department at Wyedean while her daughters were there.Template:Sfn John Nettleship, the head of science at Wyedean, described Anne as "absolutely brilliant ... very imaginative".<ref name="JKRStory" /> Anne was diagnosed with a "virulent strain" of multiple sclerosis when she was 34Template:Sfn or 35 and Jo was 15.Template:Sfn Rowling's home life was complicated by her mother's illnessTemplate:Sfn and a strained relationship with her father.Template:Sfn Rowling later said "home was a difficult place to be",Template:Sfn and that her teenage years were unhappy.<ref name="Parker-2012" /> In 2020, she wrote that her father would have preferred a son and described herself as having severe obsessive–compulsive disorder in her teens.<ref name="RowlingReasons">Template:Cite web</ref> She began to smoke, took an interest in alternative rock,Template:Sfn and adopted Siouxsie Sioux's back-combed hair and black eyeliner.<ref name="JKRStory" /> Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth, owned a turquoise Ford Anglia that provided an escape from her difficult home life and the means for Harris and Rowling to broaden their activities.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Living in a small town with pressures at home, Rowling became more interested in her schoolwork.Template:Sfn Steve Eddy, her first secondary school English teacher, remembers her as "not exceptional" but "quite good at English".<ref name="Parker-2012" /> Rowling took A-levels in English, French, and German, achieving two As and a B, and was named head girl at Wyedean.Template:Sfn She applied to Oxford University in 1982 but was rejected.Template:Sfn Biographers attribute her rejection to lack of privilege, as she had attended a state school rather than a private one.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Rowling always wanted to be a writer,Template:Sfn but chose to study French and the classics at the University of Exeter for practical reasons, influenced by her parents who thought job prospects would be better with evidence of bilingualism.Template:Sfn She later stated that Exeter was not initially what she expected ("to be among lots of similar people – thinking radical thoughts") but that she enjoyed herself after she met more people like her.<ref name="Fraser-2002" /> She was an average student at Exeter, described by biographers as prioritising her social life over her studies, and lacking ambition and enthusiasm.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Rowling recalls doing little work at university, preferring to read Dickens and Tolkien.<ref name="Parker-2012" /> She earned a BA in French from Exeter,Template:Sfn graduating in 1987 after a year of study in Paris.Template:Sfn

Inspiration and mother's death

After university, Rowling moved to a flat in Clapham Junction with friends,<ref>Smith 2002, pp. 104–5 says Clapham; Kirk 2003, p. 49 says Clapham but p. 67 says Clapham Junction. Rowling tweeted in 2020 that she first put pen to paper in Clapham Junction. Template:Cite news</ref> and took a course to become a bilingual secretary.Template:Sfn While she was working in temporary jobs in London, Amnesty International hired her to document human rights issues in French-speaking Africa.Template:Sfn She began writing adult novels while working as a temp, although they were never published.<ref name="JKRStory" />Template:Sfn In 1990, she planned to move with her boyfriend to Manchester,<ref name="OldBio">Template:Cite web</ref> and frequently took long train trips to visit.Template:Sfn In mid-1990, she was on a train delayed by four hours from Manchester to London,Template:Sfn when the characters Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger came plainly into her mind.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Having no pen or paper allowed her to fully explore the characters and their story in her imagination before she reached her flat and began to write.Template:Sfn

Rowling moved to Manchester around November 1990.<ref name="Fraser-2002" /> She described her time in Manchester, where she worked for the Chamber of CommerceTemplate:Sfn and at Manchester University in temp jobs,Template:Sfn as a "year of misery".Template:Sfn Her mother died of multiple sclerosis on 30 December 1990.Template:Sfn At the time, Rowling was writing Harry Potter,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and her mother's death heavily affected her writing.Template:Sfn

The pain of the loss of her mother was compounded when some personal effects her mother had left her were stolen.<ref name="Fraser-2002" /> With the end of the relationship with her boyfriend, and "being made redundant from an office job in Manchester",<ref name="Parker-2012" /> Rowling moved to Porto, Portugal, in November 1991 to teach night classes in English as a foreign language,Template:Sfn writing during the day.<ref name="Parker-2012" />

Marriage, divorce and single parenthood

A panned out image of city buildings
Rowling moved to Porto, Portugal, to teach English.

Five months after arriving in Porto, Rowling met the Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes in a bar and found that they shared an interest in Jane Austen.Template:Sfn The relationship was troubled, but they married on 16 October 1992.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Their daughter Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes (named after Jessica MitfordTemplate:Efn) was born on 27 July 1993 in Portugal.<ref name="JKRStory" />Template:Sfn By this time, Rowling had finished the first three chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone – almost as they were eventually published – and had drafted the rest of the novel.Template:Sfn

Rowling experienced domestic abuse during her marriage.<ref name="RowlingReasons" />Template:Sfn Arantes said in June 2020 that he had slapped her and did not regret it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rowling described the marriage as "short and catastrophic".Template:Sfn She says she was not allowed to have a house key and that her husband used the growing manuscript of her first book as a hostage.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling and Arantes separated on 17 November 1993 after Arantes threw her out of the house; she returned with the police to retrieve Jessica and her belongings and went into hiding for two weeks before she left Portugal.<ref name="JKRStory" />Template:Sfn In late 1993, with a draft of Harry Potter in her suitcase,<ref name="Parker-2012" /> Rowling moved with her daughter to Edinburgh, Scotland,<ref name="AboutJKR" /> planning to stay with her sister until Christmas.<ref name="Fraser-2002" /> Her biographer Sean Smith raises the question of why Rowling didn't stay with her father.Template:Sfn Rowling has spoken of an estrangement from her father;<ref name="Parker-2012" />Template:Sfn he had married his secretary within two years of her mother's death,Template:Sfn and The Scotsman reported that this caused a rift between his daughters and their father.<ref name="JKRStory" />

Rowling sought government assistance and got £69 (US$103) per week from Social Security; not wanting to burden her recently married sister, she moved to a flat that she described as mouse-ridden.Template:Sfn She later described her economic status as being as "poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless".<ref name="Parker-2012" /> Seven years after graduating from university, she saw herself as a failure.<ref name="Rowling-2008">Template:Cite web</ref> Tison Pugh writes that the "grinding effects of poverty, coupled with her concern for providing for her daughter as a single parent, caused great hardship".Template:Sfn Her marriage had failed, and she was jobless with a dependent child, but she later described this as "liberating" her to focus on writing.<ref name="Rowling-2008" /> She has said that "Jessica kept me going".Template:Sfn Her old school friend, Sean Harris, lent her £600 ($900), which allowed her to move to a flat in Leith,Template:Sfn where she finished Philosopher's Stone.Template:Sfn

Arantes arrived in Scotland in March 1994 seeking both Rowling and Jessica.<ref name="JKRStory" />Template:Sfn On 15 March 1994, Rowling sought an action of interdict (order of restraint); the interdict was granted and Arantes returned to Portugal.<ref name="JKRStory" />Template:Sfn Early in the year, Rowling began to experience a deep depressionTemplate:Sfn and sought medical help when she contemplated suicide.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn With nine months of therapy, her mental health gradually improved.Template:Sfn She filed for divorce on 10 August 1994;Template:Sfn the divorce was finalised on 26 June 1995.Template:Sfn

Rowling wanted to finish the book before enrolling on a teacher training course, fearing she might not be able to finish once she started the course.<ref name="Fraser-2002" /> She often wrote in cafés,Template:Sfn including Nicolson's, part-owned by her brother-in-law.Template:Sfn Secretarial work brought in £15 ($22.50) per week, but she would lose government benefits if she earned more.Template:Sfn In mid-1995, a friend gave her money that allowed her to come off benefits and enrol full-time in college.Template:Sfn Still needing money and expecting to make a living by teaching,Template:Sfn Rowling began a teacher training course in August 1995 at Moray House School of EducationTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn after completing her first novel.Template:Sfn She earned her teaching certificate in July 1996Template:Sfn and began teaching at Leith Academy.Template:Sfn

Publishing Harry Potter

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File:Potter queue.jpg
A California bookshop in 2007, five minutes before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released

Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in June 1995.Template:Sfn The initial draft included an illustration of Harry by a fireplace, showing a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.Template:Sfn Following an enthusiastic report from an early reader,Template:Sfn Christopher Little Literary Agency agreed to represent Rowling. Her manuscript was submitted to twelve publishers, all of which rejected it.<ref name="JKRStory" /> Barry Cunningham, who ran the children's literature department at Bloomsbury Publishing, bought itTemplate:Sfn after Nigel Newton, who headed Bloomsbury at the time, saw his eight-year-old daughter finish one chapter and want to keep reading.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling recalls Cunningham telling her, "You'll never make any money out of children's books, Jo."Template:Sfn Rowling was awarded a writer's grant by the Scottish Arts CouncilTemplate:Efn to support her childcare costs and finances before Philosopher's StoneTemplate:'s publication, and to aid in writing the sequel, Chamber of Secrets.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On 26 June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher's Stone with an initial print run of 5,650 copies.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Before Chamber of Secrets was published, Rowling had received £2,800 ($4,200) in royalties.Template:Sfn

Philosopher's Stone introduces Harry Potter. Harry is a wizard who lives with his non-magical relatives until his eleventh birthday, when he is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Rowling wrote six sequels, which follow Harry's adventures at Hogwarts with friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley and his attempts to defeat Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents when he was a child.Template:Sfn

File:JK Rowling 1999.jpg
Rowling at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in 1999

Rowling received the news that the US rights were being auctioned at the Bologna Children's Book Fair.Template:Sfn To her surprise and delight, Scholastic Corporation bought the rights for $105,000.Template:Sfn She bought a flat in Edinburgh with the money from the sale.Template:Sfn Arthur A. Levine, head of the imprint at Scholastic, pushed for a name change. He wanted Harry Potter and the School of Magic; as a compromise Rowling suggested Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.Template:Sfn Sorcerer's Stone was released in the United States in September 1998.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> It was not widely reviewed, but the reviews it received were generally positive.Template:Sfn Sorcerer's Stone became a New York Times bestseller by December.Template:Sfn

The next three books in the series were released in quick succession between 1998 and 2000, each selling millions of copies.Template:Sfn When Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had not appeared by 2002, rumours circulated that Rowling was suffering writer's block.Template:Sfn Rowling denied these rumours, stating the 896-page book took three years to write because of its length.<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> It was published in June 2003, selling millions of copies on the first day.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released two years later in July 2005, again selling millions of copies on the first day.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The series ended with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, published in July 2007.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Films

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File:RH116 "Harry Potter Film 2011" - Flickr - D464-Darren Hall.jpg
Bus promoting Deathly Hallows – Part 2, 2011

In 1999, Warner Bros. purchased film rights to the first two Harry Potter novels for a reported $1 million.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Rowling accepted the offer with the provision that the studio only produce Harry Potter films based on books she authored,Template:Sfn while retaining the right to final script approval,Template:Sfn and some control over merchandising.Template:Sfn Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, an adaptation of the first Harry Potter book, was released in November 2001.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Steve Kloves wrote the screenplays for all but the fifth film,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with Rowling's assistance, ensuring that his scripts kept to the plots of the novels.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The film series concluded with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was adapted in two parts; part one was released on 19 November 2010,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and part two followed on 15 July 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Warner Bros. announced an expanded relationship with Rowling in 2013, including a planned series of films about her character Newt Scamander, fictitious author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The first film of five, a prequel to the Harry Potter series, set roughly 70 years earlier, was released in November 2016.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling wrote the screenplay, which was released as a book.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Crimes of Grindelwald was released in November 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Secrets of Dumbledore was released in April 2022.<ref name="Crouch-2021">Template:Cite web</ref> In November 2022, Variety reported that Warner Bros. Discovery was not actively planning to continue the film series or to develop any further films related to the Wizarding World franchise.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Religion, wealth and remarriage

Template:Further By 1998, Rowling was portrayed in the media as a "penniless divorcee hitting the jackpot".Template:Sfn According to her biographer Sean Smith, the publicity became effective marketing for Harry Potter,Template:Sfn but her journey from living on benefits to wealth brought, along with fame, concerns from different groups about the books' portrayals of the occult and gender roles.Template:Sfn Ultimately, Smith says that these concerns served to "enhance [her] public profile rather than damage it".Template:Sfn

Rowling identifies as a Christian.<ref name="Nelson-2002">Template:Cite web</ref> Although she grew up next door to her church,Template:Sfn accounts of the family's church attendance differ.Template:Efn She began attending a Church of Scotland congregation, where Jessica was christened, around the time she was writing Harry Potter.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In a 2012 interview, she said she belonged to the Scottish Episcopal Church.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> Rowling has stated that she believes in God,Template:Sfn but has experienced doubt.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She does not believe in magic or witchcraft.<ref name="Nelson-2002" />Template:Sfn

Rowling married Neil Murray, a doctor, in 2001.Template:Sfn The couple intended to marry that July in the Galapagos, but when this leaked to the press, they delayed their wedding and changed their holiday destination to Mauritius.Template:Sfn After the UK Press Complaints Commission ruled that a magazine had breached Jessica's privacy when the eight-year-old was included in a photograph of the family taken during that trip,Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Murray and Rowling sought a more private and quiet place to live and work.Template:Sfn Rowling bought Killiechassie House and its estate in Perthshire, Scotland,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and on 26 December 2001, the couple had a small, private wedding there, officiated by an Episcopalian priest who travelled from Edinburgh.Template:Sfn Their son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, was born in 2003,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and their daughter Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray in 2005.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2004, Forbes named Rowling "the first billion-dollar author".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rowling denied that she was a billionaire in a 2005 interview.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By 2012, Forbes concluded she was no longer a billionaire due to her charitable donations and high UK taxes, but it re-added her to its list of billionaires in 2025.<ref name="Craig-2025" /> She was named the world's highest paid author by Forbes in 2008,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 2017<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and 2019.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her UK sales total in excess of £238 million, which made her the best-selling living author in Britain,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> until 2025 when she was supplanted by Julia Donaldson.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The 2021 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £820 million, ranking her as the 196th-richest person in the UK,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and The National reported her net worth in 2025 as £945 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As of 2020, she owns a £4.5 million Georgian house in Kensington and a £2 million home in Edinburgh,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> where she lives with Murray and her two youngest children.<ref name="AboutJKR" />

Adult fiction and Robert Galbraith

Template:Main In mid-2011, Rowling left Christopher Little Literary Agency and followed her agent Neil Blair to the Blair Partnership. He represented her for the publication of The Casual Vacancy, released in September 2012 by Little, Brown and Company.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was Rowling's first since Harry Potter ended, and her first book for adults.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A contemporary take on 19th-century British fiction about village life,Template:Sfn Casual Vacancy was promoted as a black comedy,Template:Sfn while the critic Ian Parker described it as a "rural comedy of manners".<ref name="Parker-2012" /> It was adapted to a miniseries co-created by the BBC and HBO.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Little, Brown and Company also published The Cuckoo's Calling, the purported début novel of Robert Galbraith, in April 2013.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Telling the story of detective Cormoran Strike, a disabled veteran of the War in Afghanistan,Template:Sfn it initially sold 1,500 copies in hardback.<ref name="Lyall-2013" /> After an investigation prompted by discussion on Twitter, the journalist Richard Brooks contacted Rowling's agent, who confirmed Galbraith was Rowling's pseudonym.<ref name="Lyall-2013">Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling later said she enjoyed working as Robert Galbraith,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a name she took from Robert F. Kennedy, a personal hero, and Ella Galbraith, a name she invented for herself in childhood.Template:Sfn After the revelation of her identity, sales of Cuckoo's Calling escalated.<ref name="Meikle-2013">Template:Cite news</ref>

Continuing the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels, The Silkworm was released in 2014;Template:Sfn Career of Evil in 2015;Template:Sfn Lethal White in 2018;<ref name="LethalReveal">Template:Cite web</ref> Troubled Blood in 2020;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Ink Black Heart in 2022;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Running Grave in 2023;<ref name="Brown-2023" /> and The Hallmarked Man, which was released in September 2025.<ref name="Hallmarked">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2017, BBC One aired the first episode<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> of the five-season series Strike, a television adaptation of the Cormoran Strike novels starring Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger, with a sixth season being shot in 2024.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The series was picked up by HBO for distribution in the United States and Canada.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Later Harry Potter works

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre in the West End, 2017

Rowling launched Pottermore in 2011, an e-book publisher and interactive content portal on which she would publish articles about the Harry Potter universe. Rowling had reserved e-book and audiobook publishing rights, and until 2015, sales could only be fulfilled through Pottermore, bypassing other marketing formats. In 2015 the innovative new media site moved to a more traditional content model, and Rowling allowed digital sales to transition to an industry standard open-commerce model.Template:Sfn The site was migrated to Wizarding World Digital in 2019, retaining original content, and now operates under the name HarryPotter.com.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child premiered in the West End in May 2016Template:Sfn and on Broadway in July.<ref name="Sulcas-2018">Template:Cite news</ref> At its London premiere, Rowling confirmed that she would not write any more Harry Potter books.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling collaborated with writer Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany.Template:Sfn<ref name="Sulcas-2018" /> The stage play's script was published as a book in July 2016.Template:Sfn The play follows the friendship between Harry's son Albus and Scorpius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's son, at Hogwarts.<ref name="Sulcas-2018" />

Announced in April 2023,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> the Harry Potter television series will begin in 2026,<ref name="Craig-2025" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> span ten years of production and feature a season dedicated to each of the seven Harry Potter books, with Rowling as executive producer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Children's stories

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The Ickabog was Rowling's first book aimed at children since Harry Potter.<ref name="bbc20201011">Template:Cite news</ref> Ickabog is a monster that turns out to be real; a group of children find out the truth about the Ickabog and save the day.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling released The Ickabog free online in mid-2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Flood-2020">Template:Cite news</ref> She began writing it in 2009 but set it aside to focus on other works including Casual Vacancy.<ref name="Flood-2020" /> Scholastic held a competition to select children's art for the print edition, which was published in the US and Canada on 10 November 2020.<ref name="CBC2020">Template:Cite news</ref> Profits went to charities focused on COVID-19 relief.<ref name="bbc20201011" /><ref name="COVIDIndia" />

In The Christmas Pig, a young boy loses his favourite stuffed animal, a pig, and the Christmas Pig guides him through the fantastical Land of the Lost to retrieve it.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The novel was published on 12 October 2021<ref name="kirkus20211021">Template:Cite web</ref> and became a bestseller in the UK<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the US.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Influences

Template:See also Template:Multiple image Rowling has named Jessica Mitford as her greatest influence. She said Mitford had "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 Spanish Civil War", and that 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As a child, Rowling read C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse, Manxmouse by Paul Gallico, and books by E. Nesbit and Noel Streatfeild.Template:Sfn Rowling describes Jane Austen as her "favourite author of all time".Template:Sfn

Rowling acknowledges Homer, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare as literary influences.Template:Sfn Scholars agree that Harry Potter is heavily influenced by the children's fantasy of writers such as Lewis, Goudge, Nesbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Diana Wynne Jones.Template:Sfn According to the critic Beatrice Groves, Harry Potter is also "rooted in the Western literary tradition", including the classics.Template:Sfn Commentators also note similarities to the children's stories of Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> Rowling expresses admiration for Lewis, in whose writing battles between good and evil are also prominent, but rejects any connection with Dahl.Template:Sfn

Earlier works prominently featuring characters who learn to use magic include Le Guin's Earthsea series, in which a school of wizardry also appears, and the Chrestomanci books by Jones.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Rowling's setting of a "school of witchcraft and wizardry" departs from the still older tradition of protagonists as apprentices to magicians, exemplified by The Sorcerer's Apprentice: yet this trope does appear in Harry Potter, when Harry receives individual instruction from Remus Lupin and other teachers.Template:Sfn Rowling also draws on the tradition of stories set in boarding schools, a major example of which is Thomas Hughes's 1857 volume Tom Brown's School Days.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Style and themes

Template:Further-text

Style and allusions

Rowling is known primarily as an author of fantasy and children's literature.Template:Sfn Her writing in other genres, including literary fiction and murder mystery, has received less critical attention.Template:Sfn Rowling's most famous work, Harry Potter, has been defined as a fairy tale, a Bildungsroman and a boarding-school story.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Her other writings have been described by Pugh as gritty contemporary fiction with historical influences (The Casual Vacancy) and hardboiled detective fiction (Cormoran Strike).Template:Sfn

In Harry Potter, Rowling juxtaposes the extraordinary against the ordinary.Template:Sfn Her narrative features two worlds – the mundane and the fantastic – but it differs from typical portal fantasy in that its magical elements stay grounded in the everyday.Template:Sfn Paintings move and talk; books bite readers; letters shout messages; and maps show live journeys,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn making the wizarding world "both exotic and cosily familiar" according to the scholar Catherine Butler.Template:Sfn This blend of realistic and romantic elements extends to Rowling's characters.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Harry is ordinary and relatable, with down-to-earth features such as wearing broken glasses;Template:Sfn these elements serve to highlight Harry when he is heroic, making him both an everyman and a fairytale hero.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Arthurian, Christian and fairytale motifs are frequently found in Rowling's writing. Harry's ability to draw the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat resembles the Arthurian sword in the stone legend.Template:Sfn His life with the Dursleys has been compared to Cinderella.Template:Sfn Like C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter contains Christian symbolism and allegory. The series has been viewed as a Christian moral fable in the psychomachia tradition, in which stand-ins for good and evil fight for supremacy over a person's soul.Template:Sfn The critic of children's literature Joy Farmer sees parallels between Harry and Jesus Christ.Template:Sfn According to Maria Nikolajeva, Christian imagery is particularly strong in the final scenes of the series: she writes that Harry dies in self-sacrifice and Voldemort delivers an Template:Lang speech, after which Harry is resurrected and defeats his enemy.Template:Sfn

Themes

Death is Rowling's overarching theme in Harry Potter.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She later said that her literary creation of the Mirror of Erised is about her mother's death.Template:Sfn In the first book, when Harry looks into the mirror, he feels both joy and "a terrible sadness" at seeing his desire: his parents, alive and with him.Template:Sfn Confronting their loss is central to Harry's character arc and manifests in different ways through the series, such as in his struggles with Dementors.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Other characters in Harry's life die; he even faces his own death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.Template:Sfn Soon after she started writing Philosopher's Stone, her mother died, and she said that "I really think from that moment on, death became a central, if not the central theme of the seven books".Template:Sfn Rowling has described Harry as "the prism through which I view death", and further stated that "all of my characters are defined by their attitude to death and the possibility of death".Template:Sfn

While Harry Potter can be viewed as a story about good versus evil, its moral divisions are not absolute.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn First impressions of characters are often misleading. Harry assumes in the first book that Quirrell is good because he opposes Snape, who appears malicious; in reality, their positions are reversed.Template:Sfn In Rowling's world, good and evil are choices rather than inherent attributes: second chances and redemption are key themes of the series.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref>

Reception

Rowling has enjoyed enormous commercial success as an author. Her Harry Potter series topped bestseller lists,Template:Sfn spawned a global media franchise including filmsTemplate:Sfn and video games,Template:Sfn and had been translated into 84 languages by 2023.Template:Sfn The first three Harry Potter books occupied the top three spots of The New York Times bestseller list for more than a year; they were then moved to a newly created children's list.Template:Sfn The final four books each set records as the fastest-selling books in the UK or US,Template:Efn and the series as a whole had sold more than 600 million copies Template:As of.Template:Sfn Neither of Rowling's later works, The Casual Vacancy and the Cormoran Strike series, has been as successful,Template:Sfn although Casual Vacancy was still a bestseller in the UK within weeks of its release.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Harry PotterTemplate:'s popularity has been attributed to factors including the nostalgia evoked by the boarding-school story, the endearing nature of Rowling's characters, and the accessibility of her books to a variety of readers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to Julia Eccleshare, the books are "neither too literary nor too popular, too difficult nor too easy, neither too young nor too old", and hence bridge traditional reading divides.Template:Sfn

Critical response to Harry Potter has been more mixed.Template:Sfn Harold Bloom regarded Rowling's prose as poor and her plots as conventional,Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> while Jack Zipes argues that the series would not be successful if it were not formulaic.Template:Sfn Zipes states that the early novels have the same plot: in each book, Harry escapes the Dursleys to visit Hogwarts, where he confronts Lord Voldemort and then heads back successful.Template:Sfn Rowling's prose has been described as simple and not innovative; Le Guin, like several other critics, considered it "stylistically ordinary".Template:Sfn According to the novelist A. S. Byatt, the books reflect a dumbed-down culture dominated by soap operas and reality television.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Thus, some critics argue, Harry Potter does not innovate on established literary forms; nor does it challenge readers' preconceived ideas.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Conversely, the scholar Philip Nel rejects such critiques as "snobbery" that reacts to the novels' popularity,Template:Sfn whereas Mary Pharr argues that Harry PotterTemplate:'s conventionalism is the point: by amalgamating literary forms familiar to her readers, Rowling invites them to "ponder their own ideas".Template:Sfn Other critics who see artistic merit in Rowling's writing include Marina Warner, who views Harry Potter as part of an "alternative genealogy" of English literature that she traces from Edmund Spenser to Christina Rossetti.Template:Sfn Michiko Kakutani praises Rowling's fictional world and the darker tone of the series' later entries.Template:Sfn

Reception of Rowling's later works has varied among critics. The Casual Vacancy, her attempt at literary fiction, drew mixed reviews. Some critics praised its characterisation, while others stated that it would have been better if it had contained magic.Template:Sfn The Cormoran Strike series was more warmly received as a work of British detective fiction, even as some reviewers noted that its plots are occasionally contrived.Template:Sfn Theatrical reviews of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child were highly positive.Template:Sfn<ref name="Sulcas-2018" /> Fans have been more critical of the play's use of time travel, changes to characters' personalities, and perceived queerbaiting in Albus and Scorpius's relationship, leading some to question its connection to the Harry Potter canon.Template:Sfn

Gender and social division

Rowling's portrayal of women in Harry Potter has been described as complex and varied, but nonetheless conforming to stereotypical and patriarchal depictions of gender.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> Gender divides are ostensibly absent in the books: Hogwarts is coeducational and women hold positions of power in wizarding society. However, this setting obscures the typecasting of female characters and the general depiction of conventional gender roles.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> According to the scholars Elizabeth Heilman and Trevor Donaldson, the subordination of female characters goes further early in the series. The final three books "showcase richer roles and more powerful females": for instance, the series' "most matriarchal character", Molly Weasley, engages substantially in the final battle of Deathly Hallows, while other women are shown as leaders.Template:Sfn Hermione Granger, in particular, becomes an active and independent character essential to the protagonists' battle against evil.Template:Sfn Yet, even particularly capable female characters such as Hermione and Minerva McGonagall are placed in supporting roles,Template:Sfn and Hermione's status as a feminist model is debated.Template:Sfn Girls and women are frequently shown as emotional, defined by their appearance, and denied agency in family settings.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref>

The social hierarchies in Rowling's magical world have been a matter of debate among scholars and critics.Template:Sfn The primary antagonists of Harry Potter, Voldemort and his followers, believe blood purity is paramount, and that non-wizards, or "muggles", are subhuman.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> Their ideology of racial difference is depicted as unambiguously evil.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> However, the series cannot wholly reject racial division, according to several scholars, as it still depicts wizards as fundamentally superior to muggles.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> Blake and Zipes argue that numerous examples of wizardly superiority are depicted as "natural and comfortable".Template:Sfn Thus, according to Gupta, Harry Potter depicts superior races as having a moral obligation of tolerance and altruism towards lesser races, rather than explicitly depicting equality.Template:Sfn

Rowling's depictions of the status of magical non-humans is similarly debated.Template:Sfn Discussing the slavery of house-elves within Harry Potter, scholars such as Brycchan Carey have praised the books' abolitionist sentiments, viewing Hermione's Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare as a model for younger readers' political engagement.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb</ref> Other critics, including Farah Mendlesohn, find the portrayal of house-elves extremely troublesome; they are written as happy in their slavery, and Hermione's efforts on their behalf are implied to be naïve.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> Pharr terms the house-elves a disharmonious element in the series, writing that Rowling leaves their fate hanging;Template:Sfn at the end of Deathly Hallows, the elves remain enslaved and cheerful.Template:Sfn More generally, the subordination of magical non-humans remains in place, unchanged by the defeat of Voldemort.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> Thus, scholars suggest, the series's message is essentially conservative; it sees no reason to transform social hierarchies, only being concerned with who holds positions of power.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref>

Religious reactions

Template:Main There have been attempts to ban Harry Potter around the world, especially in the United States,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and in the Bible Belt in particular.Template:Sfn The series topped the American Library Association's list of most challenged books in the first three years of its publication.Template:Sfn In the following years, parents in several US cities launched protests against teaching it in schools.Template:Sfn Some Christian critics, particularly Evangelical Christians, have claimed that the novels promote witchcraft and harm children;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn similar opposition has been expressed to the film adaptations.Template:Sfn Criticism has taken two main forms: allegations that Harry Potter is a pagan text; and claims that it encourages children to oppose authority, derived mainly from Harry's rejection of the Dursleys, his guardians.Template:Sfn The author and scholar Amanda Cockrell suggests that Harry PotterTemplate:'s popularity, and recent preoccupation with fantasy and the occult among Christian fundamentalists, explains why the series received particular opposition.Template:Sfn Some groups of Shia and Sunni Muslims also argued that the series contained Satanic subtext, and it was banned in private schools in the United Arab Emirates by its Ministry of Education and Youth, which stated it contradicted Islamic values.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Harry Potter books also have a group of vocal religious supporters who believe that Harry Potter espouses Christian values, or that the Bible does not prohibit the forms of magic described in the series.Template:Sfn Christian analyses of the series have argued that it embraces ideals of friendship, loyalty, courage, love, and the temptation of power.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn After the final volume was published, Rowling said she intentionally incorporated Christian themes, in particular the idea that love may hold power over death.Template:Sfn According to Farmer, it is a profound misreading to think that Harry Potter promotes witchcraft.Template:Sfn The scholar Em McAvan writes that evangelical objections to Harry Potter are superficial, based on the presence of magic in the books: they do not attempt to understand the moral messages in the series.Template:Sfn

Legacy

Sculpture of Harry Potter in Leicester Square, London, 2020
Sculpture of Harry Potter as part of the Scenes in the Square sculpture trail in Leicester Square, London, 2020

Rowling's Harry Potter series has been credited with a resurgence in crossover fiction: children's literature with an adult appeal.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Crossovers were prevalent in 19th-century American and British fiction, but fell out of favour in the 20th centuryTemplate:Sfn and did not occur at the same scale.Template:Sfn The post-Harry Potter crossover trend is associated with the fantasy genre.Template:Sfn In the 1970s, children's books were generally realistic as opposed to fantastic,Template:Sfn while adult fantasy became popular because of the influence of The Lord of the Rings.Template:Sfn The next decade saw an increasing interest in grim, realist themes, with an outflow of fantasy readers and writers to adult works.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The commercial success of Harry Potter in 1997 reversed this trend.Template:Sfn The scale of its growth had no precedent in the children's market: within four years, it occupied 28% of that field by revenue.Template:Sfn Children's literature rose in cultural status,Template:Sfn and fantasy became a dominant genre.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Older works of children's fantasy, including Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci series and Diane Duane's Young Wizards, were reprinted and rose in popularity; some authors re-established their careers.Template:Sfn In the following decades, many Harry Potter imitators and subversive responses grew popular.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Rowling has been compared with Enid Blyton, who also wrote in simple language about groups of children and long held sway over the British children's market.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She has also been described as an heir to Roald Dahl.Template:Sfn Some critics view Harry PotterTemplate:'s rise, along with the concurrent success of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, as part of a broader shift in reading tastes: a rejection of literary fiction in favour of plot and adventure.Template:Sfn This is reflected in the BBC's 2003 "Big Read" survey of the UK's favourite books, where Pullman and Rowling ranked at numbers 3 and 5, respectively, with very few British literary classics in the top 10.Template:Sfn

Harry PotterTemplate:'s popularity led its publishers to plan elaborate releases and fostered additional publications by fans and forgers after the books. Beginning with the release of Prisoner of Azkaban on 8 July 1999 at 3:45 pm,Template:SfnTemplate:Clarify its publishers coordinated selling the books at the same time globally, introduced security protocols to prevent premature purchases, and required booksellers to agree not to sell copies before the appointed time.Template:Sfn Driven by the growth of the internet, fan fiction about the series proliferated and has spawned a diverse community of readers and writers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn While Rowling has supported fan fiction, her statements about characters made after the books were published but not included in the books – for instance, that Harry and Hermione could have been a couple, and that Dumbledore was gay – have complicated her relationship with readers;Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn according to scholars, this shows that modern readers feel a sense of ownership over the text that is independent of, and sometimes contradicts, authorial intent.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Template:Main In the 1990s and 2000s, Rowling was both a plaintiff and defendant in lawsuits alleging copyright infringement. Nancy Stouffer sued Rowling in 1999, alleging that Harry Potter was based on stories she published in 1984.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Rowling won in September 2002.Template:Sfn Richard Posner describes Stouffer's suit as deeply flawed and notes that the court, finding she had used "forged and altered documents", assessed a $50,000 penalty against her.Template:Sfn

With her literary agents and Warner Bros., Rowling has brought legal action against publishers and writers of Harry Potter knockoffs in several countries.Template:Sfn In the mid-2000s, Rowling and her publishers obtained a series of injunctions prohibiting sales or published reviews of her books before their official release dates.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Beginning in 2001, after Rowling sold film rights to Warner Bros., the studio tried to take Harry Potter fan sites offline unless it determined that they were made by "authentic" fans for innocuous purposes.Template:Sfn In 2007, with Warner Bros., Rowling started proceedings to cease publication of a book based on content from a fan site called The Harry Potter Lexicon.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The court held that Lexicon was neither a fair use of Rowling's material nor a derivative work, but it did not prevent the book from being published in a different form.Template:Sfn Lexicon was published in 2009.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Philanthropy

Rowling's charitable donations between 2005 and 2025 were estimated at over $200 million by Forbes,<ref name="Craig-2025">Template:Cite news</ref> which also estimated she had donated $160 million before 2012.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was the second most generous UK donor in 2015 (following the singer Elton John), giving about $14 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2000, she established the Volant Charitable Trust, named after her motherTemplate:Sfn to address social deprivation in at-risk women, children and youth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was appointed president of One Parent Families (now Gingerbread) in 2004,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> after becoming its first ambassador in 2000.Template:Sfn She collaborated with Sarah Brown<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> on a book of children's stories to benefit One Parent Families.Template:Sfn Together with the MEP Emma Nicholson,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rowling founded the charity now known as Lumos in 2005.Template:Sfn Lumos has worked with orphanages in Ukraine, Romania, Haiti, and Colombia, and it had supported at least 280,000 children by 2025.<ref name="Craig-2025" /> She has donated several hundred thousand pounds to help women lawyers flee from the Taliban's control, helping hundreds of Afghans escape.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rowling has made donations to support other medical causes. She named another institution after her mother in 2010, when she donated £10 million to found a multiple sclerosis research centre at the University of Edinburgh.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She gave an additional £15.3 million to the centre in 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> To support COVID-19 relief, she donated six-figure sums to both Khalsa Aid and the British Asian Trust from royalties for The Ickabog.<ref name="COVIDIndia">Template:Cite web</ref>

Several publications in the Harry Potter universe have been sold for charitable purposes. Profits from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, both published in 2001, went to Comic Relief.Template:Sfn To support Children's Voice, later renamed Lumos, Rowling sold a deluxe copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard at auction in 2007. Amazon's £1.95 million purchase set a record for a contemporary literary work and for children's literature.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn Rowling published the book and, in 2013, donated the proceeds of nearly £19 million (then about $30 million) to Lumos.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rowling and 12 other writers composed short pieces in 2008 to be sold to benefit Dyslexia Action and English PEN. Rowling's contribution was an 800-word Harry Potter prequel.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn When the revelation that Rowling wrote The Cuckoo's Calling led to an increase in sales,<ref name="Meikle-2013" /> she donated the royalties to ABF The Soldiers' Charity (formerly the Army Benevolent Fund).Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Views

Rowling was actively engaged on the internet before author webpages were common,Template:Sfn and used Twitter to reach her Harry Potter fans and followers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She often uses sarcasm in tweets about her political opinions, sometimes generating controversy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Politics

Template:Main Template:See also In 2008, Rowling donated £1 million to the Labour Party, endorsed the Labour prime minister Gordon Brown over his Conservative challenger David Cameron, and commended Labour's policies on child poverty.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In June 2024, she wrote that she had a "poor opinion" of Keir Starmer and that it would be hard for her to vote for Labour due to their position on transgender rights, which she claims comes at the expense of women.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In her "Single mother's manifesto" published in The Times in 2010, Rowling criticised the prime minister David Cameron's plan to offer married couples an annual tax credit. She thought that the proposal discriminated against single parents, whose interests the Conservative Party failed to consider.Template:Sfn Rowling opposed the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, and donated £1 million to the Better Together anti-independence campaign.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She campaigned for the UK to stay in the European Union in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. She defined herself as an internationalist, "the mongrel product of this European continent",Template:Sfn and expressed concern that "racists and bigots" were directing parts of the Leave campaign.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

She opposed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but refused to support a cultural boycott of Israel in 2015, believing that depriving Israel of shared culture would not dislodge him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2015, Rowling joined 150 others in signing a letter published in The Guardian in favour of cultural engagement with Israel.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Press

Rowling has a difficult relationship with the press and has tried to influence the type of coverage she receives.Template:Sfn She described herself in 2003 as "too thin-skinned".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As of 2011, she had taken more than 50 actions against the press.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling dislikes the British tabloid the Daily Mail,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> which she successfully sued in 2014 for libel about her time as a single mother.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Leveson Inquiry into the British press named Rowling as a "core participant" in 2011. She was one of many celebrities alleged to have been victims of phone hacking.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The following year she criticised Cameron's decision not to implement all the inquiry's recommendations and supported the Hacked Off campaign, pushing for stricter media reform.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Rowling-2012">Template:Cite news</ref>

Transgender people

Template:Main Rowling is opposed to legislation that would allow transgender people to legally self-identify their gender without first receiving a medical diagnosis.<ref name="Milne-2020" /><ref name="Brooks-2020">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She rejects the view that gender identity is different from birth sex, and that it should take priority in equalities law.<ref name="Brooks-2020" /> Her view is that it would be unsafe to allow "any man who believes or feels he's a woman" into bathrooms, changing rooms,<ref name="Shirbon2020">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> or what she considers "single-sex spaces".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> These views are often described as trans-exclusionary.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Friction over Rowling's trans-exclusionary writings surged in 2019 when she defended Maya Forstater,Template:Sfn whose employment contract was not renewed after she made a series of tweets questioning U.K. government plans to let people declare their own gender.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (The Employment Appeal Tribunal found that Forstater had been discriminated against.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn) Rowling wrote that transgender people should live in "peace and security" but said she opposed "forc[ing] women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to Harry Potter scholar Lana Whited, in the next six months "Rowling herself fanned the flames as she became increasingly vocal".Template:Sfn

Rowling has opposed proposed gender self-recognition law reformsTemplate:Efn in the UK that would make it easier for trans people to change their legal gender.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She also supported trans-exclusionary campaign group For Women Scotland in the landmark UK Supreme Court case For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to media scholar Jennifer Duggan, Rowling has suggested on social media that children and cisgender women are threatened by trans women and trans-positive messages.Template:Sfn Responding to an online op-ed that used the words people who menstruate, Rowling mocked the phrase<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn and tweeted that women's rights and "lived reality" would be "erased" if "sex isn't real".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Following the strengthening of a hate crime law in Scotland in April 2024, she tweeted a list of trans women, writing that they are "men, every last one of them" and challenging the police to arrest her.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2024, Variety wrote that Rowling had "made her campaign against trans identity the central focus of her online persona".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rowling denies that her views are transphobic.<ref name="RowlingReasons2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Dismisses2">Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling's public expression of her views has prompted declarations of support for transgender people from the literary,<ref>UK, US, Canada, Ireland: Template:Cite news</ref> music,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> theme park, and video gaming sectors<ref>

During her advocacy in 2022 against Scottish parliament's bill to simplify changing one's legal gender,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling founded Beira's Place with her own funds, a women-only rape help centre that provides free support services to survivors of sexual violence.<ref name="RapeHelp">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The centre does not serve trans women.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rowling has donated to the group For Women Scotland, which brought legal challenges leading to the UK Supreme Court case For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2025, she opened the J.K. Rowling Women's Fund, which supports groups advocating for "sex-based rights" for women; in describing the group, NBC says that while the fund makes no mention of trans people directly, this terminology is frequently used by "proponents of efforts to restrict trans rights".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Whited wrote in 2024 that Rowling's sometimes "flippant" and "simplistic understanding of gender identity" had left some transgender people feeling betrayed and permanently changed her "relationship not only with fans, readers, and scholars ... but also with her works themselves".Template:Sfn

Awards and honours

Template:Main

File:Jk-rowling-crop.JPG
Rowling receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen, 2006

Rowling's Harry Potter series has won awards for general literature, children's literature, and speculative fiction. It has earned multiple British Book Awards, beginning with the Children's Book of the Year for the first two volumes, Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets.Template:Sfn The third novel, Prisoner of Azkaban, was nominated for an adult award, the Whitbread Book of the Year, where it competed against the Nobel Prize laureate Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. The award body gave Rowling the children's prize instead (worth half the cash amount), which some scholars felt exemplified a literary prejudice against children's books.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She won the World Science Fiction Convention's Hugo Award for the fourth book, Goblet of Fire,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the British Book Awards' adult prize – the Book of the Year – for the sixth novel, Half-Blood Prince.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rowling was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2000 Birthday Honours for services to children's literature,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and three years later received Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for Concord.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Following the conclusion of the Harry Potter series, she won the Outstanding Achievement Prize at the 2008 British Book Awards.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The next year, she was awarded Template:Lang by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy,Template:Sfn and leading magazine editors named her the "Most Influential Woman in the UK" in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the 2017 Birthday Honours, Rowling was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for services to literature and philanthropy.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Many academic institutions have bestowed honorary degrees on Rowling,Template:Sfn including her alma mater, the University of Exeter,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Harvard University, where she spoke at the 2008 commencement ceremony.<ref name="Rowling-2008a" /> In 2002, Rowling was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and awarded as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (HonFRSE).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2011, she was recognised as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCPE).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rowling shared the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema with the cast and crew of the Harry Potter films in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her other awards include the 2017 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the 2021 British Book Awards' Crime and Thriller prize for the fifth volume of her Cormoran Strike series.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Written works

Template:Sronly
Target/
type 		Series/
description 		Title Date Template:Reference heading
Young adult
fiction 		Harry Potter series 1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Template:Dts <ref name="Timeline">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Template:Dts <ref name="Timeline" />Template:Sfn
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Template:Dts <ref name="Timeline" />Template:Sfn
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Template:Dts <ref name="Timeline" />Template:Sfn
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Template:Dts <ref name="Timeline" />Template:Sfn
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Template:Dts <ref name="Timeline" />Template:Sfn
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn
Harry Potter–
related books 		Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (supplement to the Harry Potter series) Template:Dts Template:Sfn
Quidditch Through the Ages (supplement to the Harry Potter series) Template:Dts Template:Sfn
Harry Potter prequel (short story published in What's Your Story Postcard Collection) Template:Dts <ref name="PrequelStolen" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Tales of Beedle the Bard (supplement to the Harry Potter series) Template:Dts Template:Sfn
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (story concept for play) Template:Dts
premiere 		<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists Template:Dts Template:Sfn
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies Template:Dts Template:Sfn
Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide Template:Dts Template:Sfn
From the Wizarding Archive: Volumes 1 and 2 Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Harry Potter–
related original screenplays 		Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Template:Dts Template:Sfn
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Template:Dts
premiere 		<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Template:Dts <ref name="Crouch-2021" />
Adult
fiction 		The Casual Vacancy Template:Dts Template:Sfn
Cormoran Strike series
(as Robert Galbraith) 		1. The Cuckoo's Calling Template:Dts Template:Sfn
2. The Silkworm Template:Dts Template:Sfn
3. Career of Evil Template:Dts Template:Sfn
4. Lethal White Template:Dts <ref name="LethalReveal" />
5. Troubled Blood Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
6. The Ink Black Heart Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
7. The Running Grave Template:Dts <ref name="Brown-2023">Template:Cite news</ref>
8. The Hallmarked Man Template:Dts <ref name="Hallmarked"/>
Children's
fiction 		The Ickabog Template:Dts <ref name="CBC2020" />
The Christmas Pig Template:Dts <ref name="kirkus20211021" />
Non-fiction Books Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and Importance of Imagination, illustrated by Joel Holland, Sphere. Template:Dts Template:Sfn
A Love Letter to Europe: an Outpouring of Love and Sadness from our Writers, Thinkers and Artists, Coronet (contributor). Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht, Constable (Contributor). Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Articles "The first it girl: J. K. Rowling reviews Decca: the Letters by Jessica Mitford". Sussman, Peter Y., editor. The Daily Telegraph. Template:Dts <ref name="Parker-2012" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
"The fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination". Harvard Magazine. Template:Dts <ref name="Rowling-2008a">Template:Cite news</ref>
"Gordon Brown – the 2009 Time 100". Time magazine. Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
"The single mother's manifesto". The Times. Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
"I feel duped and angry at David Cameron's reaction to Leveson". The Guardian. Template:Dts <ref name="Rowling-2012" />
"Isn't it time we left orphanages to fairytales?" The Guardian. Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
"Labour has dismissed women like me. I'll struggle to vote for it". The Times. Template:Dts <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Book Foreword/
Introduction 		Reynolds, Kim; Cooling, Wendy, project consultants. Families Just Like Us: The One Parent Families Good Book Guide. National Council for One Parent Families; Book Trust. 2000 Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
McNeil, Gil; Brown, Sarah, editors. Magic. Bloomsbury. Template:Dts Template:Sfn
Brown, Gordon. "Ending child poverty" in Moving Britain Forward. Selected Speeches 1997–2006. Bloomsbury. Template:Dts <ref name="Parker-2012" />Template:Sfn
Anelli, Melissa. Harry, A History. Pocket Books. Template:Dts Template:Sfn

Filmography

Film

Template:Sronly
Year Title Credited as Notes Template:Reference heading
Screenwriter Producer
2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 Template:No Template:Yes Film based on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows <ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Template:No Template:Yes
2016 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Template:Yes Template:Yes Films inspired by the Harry Potter supplementary book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them <ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
2018 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Template:Yes Template:Yes <ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
2022 Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Template:Yes Template:Yes <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Television

Template:Sronly
Year Title Credited as Notes Template:Reference heading
Voice actress Executive producer
2003 The Simpsons Template:Yes Template:No Voice cameo in "The Regina Monologues" <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2015 The Casual Vacancy Template:No Template:Yes Television miniseries based on The Casual Vacancy <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2017–present Strike Template:No Template:Yes Television series based on Cormoran Strike novels <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
2027 Harry Potter Template:No Template:Yes Television series based on Harry Potter novels; filming <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notes

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References

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Works cited

Books Template:Refbegin

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Journal articles Template:Refbegin

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Non-English news articles Template:Refbegin

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