It feels bizarre that we have never mentioned J K Rowling before as a trailblazer, but that is maybe because she never seems to be out of the headlines. Even now, with Harry Potter finished, she is still newsworthy because of The Tales of Beedle the Bard which is coming out soon.
However, now the fuss over her has died down slightly I thought now might be a good time. I probably can't tell you much that you don't already know, but we have to commemorate this woman who has got millions of children (and not to mention adults) all over the world wanting to read.
Jo Rowling (there is no middle name, the K stands for Kathleen which is her paternal grandmother's name) studied at the University of Exeter where she gained a degree in French. She really wanted to study English but felt French was more useful. She then went on to work for Amnesty International in London, before deciding to more up north to Manchester.
It was on a train journey back from Manchester to London after a flat hunting expedition that the idea of Harry Potter fell into her lap. She had no pen and paper so allowed herself to daydream about him for hours. As soon as she arrived home she began to write Philosopher's Stone. But then, tragically in 1990, her mother died. This was to have a huge impact on Harry's story.
Nine months after her mum died she moved to Portugal, taking her precious manuscript with her, thinking she might have finished it by the time she arrived back to the UK. But instead she came back in 1994 with a daughter. Moving to Edinburgh she decided it was now or never and wrote when her daughter was asleep and in the evenings.
Eventually she sent the manuscript off. The first agent replied immediately, rejecting it. The second liked it, but it took a year of rejections until they found a publisher. When she did her advance was £1500.
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