[163], In 2017, the BBC released a Cormoran Strike television series, starring Tom Burke as Cormoran Strike, it was picked up by HBO for distribution in the United States and Canada. A native of Yate, Gloucestershire, England, J. K. Rowling was born as Joanne Rowling on 31 July 1965. [82] Rowling was named Author of the Year in the 2000 British Book Awards. [90] It sold 11 million copies in the first day of release in the United Kingdom and United States. [14] In 2012, Forbes removed Rowling from their rich list, claiming that her US$160 million in charitable donations and the high tax rate in the UK meant she was no longer a billionaire. [221], In 2007, Rowling said she was the only one in her family who went regularly to church and that she was an adherent of the Church of England. The film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released on 4 June 2004, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. [7] The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, 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. Since then, Rowling has written several books for adult readers: The Casual Vacancy (2012) and—under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith—the crime fiction Cormoran Strike series. [76] In October 1998, Scholastic published Philosopher's Stone in the US under the title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a change Rowling says she now regrets and would have fought if she had been in a better position at the time. [37], Rowling has said that her teenage years were unhappy. [33] In 2002, Rowling became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (HonFRSE)[280] as well a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL). [140][141], In 2007, during the Edinburgh Book Festival, author Ian Rankin claimed that his wife spotted Rowling "scribbling away" at a detective novel in a café. JK Rowling met her first husband Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese television journalist, eighteen months after she moved to Porto, a city in Portugal. The success story and life of JK Rowling, in general, is truly inspiring. "[27][58], Rowling was left in despair after her estranged husband arrived in Scotland, seeking both her and their daughter. [127] Shortly after Rowling began writing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she ceased working on the novel to care for David in his early infancy. [123], Rowling was named the most highly paid author in the world with earnings of £72 million ($95 million) a year by Forbes in 2017. "All about Harry Potter from quidditch to the future of the Sorting Hat". [240] In November 2012, Rowling wrote an article for The Guardian in reaction to David Cameron's decision not to implement the full recommendations of the Leveson inquiry, saying she felt "duped and angry". [150], India Knight, a novelist and columnist for The Sunday Times, tweeted on 9 July 2013 that she had been reading The Cuckoo's Calling and thought it was good for a début novel. Her Net Worth And Chris Darden Affair, Alex Gaskarth Bio, Wife, Height, Age, Net Worth, Brother, Family. [157][158] Rowling released a statement saying she was disappointed and angry;[157] Russells apologised for the leak, confirming it was not part of a marketing stunt and that "the disclosure was made in confidence to someone he [Gossage] trusted implicitly". She is the mastermind behind the novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and its franchise. [129] Rowling's youngest child, daughter Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, to whom she dedicated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was born on 23 January 2005. [216], In June 2016, Rowling campaigned for the United Kingdom to stay in the European Union, in the run up to the referendum to leave the European Union, stating on her website that, "I'm the mongrel product of this European continent and I'm an internationalist. [58] Her marriage had failed, and she was jobless with a dependent child, but she described her failure as liberating and allowing her to focus on writing. [73] Soon after, in 1997, Rowling received an £8,000 grant from the Scottish Arts Council to enable her to continue writing. [97], In October 1998, Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to the first two novels for a seven-figure sum.