Joanne ‘Jo’ Rowling is the author of the

Harry Potter

series of children’s fantasy books, which tell the story of the orphaned boy-wizard Harry Potter and his fight against the evil Lord Voldemort. Each of the seven books in the series have outsold each other, the most recent (and last in the series)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

having also become the fastest selling book of all time.

Rowling’s parents, Peter James Rowling and Anne Volant, met in 1963 as eighteen-year olds on a train out of King’s Cross Station whilst they were on their way to join the British navy, and married a year later. Joanne Rowling (minus a middle name) was born soon after, in July 1965, to the young couple at Chipping Sodbury General Hospital, Yate, Gloucestershire. Rowling’s mother was a

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Citation: Nagy, Victoria. "J. K. Rowling". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 October 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5879, accessed 29 March 2024.]

5879 J. K. Rowling 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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