J.K. Rowling is an English writer born in Yate in 1965, wellknown for the Harry Potter fantasy series. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth book of the series (2016), which has become one of the most popular book and film franchises in history. It is now published in 78 languages, and 450 million copies have been sold across the world. J.K. Rowling has received many awards and honours.
Joanne Rowling, best known as J.K. Rowling, adopted her pen name, J.K., incorporating her grandmother’s name, Kathleen, for the latter initial. She came from humble economic means before writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, a children’s fantasy novel. She has been awarded many times, including with an OBE for services to children’s literature, France’s Légion d’Honneur, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
A graduate of Exeter University, she moved to Portugal in 1990 to teach English. There, she met and married the Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes. After her divorce, she moved to Edinburgh with her daughter Jessica to live near her younger sister. Later, in 2001, she married anesthetist Dr. Neil Murray at the couple’s home in Scotland and they had two children together.
As a single mother living in Edinburgh, Scotland, and after a number of rejections, J.K. Rowling finally sold the book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, for the equivalent of about $4,000, the title being changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for its publication in America. The book was an international hit.
She went on writing more books in the series, six more books precisely, which sold hundreds of millions of copies and was adapted into a blockbuster film franchise. Rowling thus became an international literary sensation in 1999, when the first three installments of her Harry Potter children’s book series took over the top three slots of The New York Times best-seller list after achieving similar success in her native United Kingdom. Indeed, by the summer of 2000, the first three Harry Potter books, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, earned approximately $480 million in three years, with over 35 million copies in print in 35 languages. The phenomenal response to Rowling‘s books culminated in July 2000, when the fourth volume in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, became the fastest-selling book in history. The book saw a first printing of 5.3 million copies and advance orders of over 1.8 million. The book and the subsequent series chronicle the life of Harry Potter, a young wizard, and his motley band of cohorts at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After a postponed release date, the fifth installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was published in June 2003. The sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, sold 6.9 million copies in the United States in its first 24 hours, the biggest opening in publishing history. Prior to its July 2007 release, the seventh installment in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was the largest ever pre-ordered book at Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores, and at Amazon.com. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth book of the series (2016).
A film version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, directed by Chris Columbus and starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, was released in November 2001. In its opening weekend in the U.S., the film debuted on a record 8,200 screens and smashed the previous box-office record, earning an estimated $93.5 million ($20 million more than the previous recordholder, 1999’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park). It ended the year as the top-grossing movie of 2001. The second and third films in the series — Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) directed by Columbus and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) directed by Alfonso Cuarón — each enjoyed similar record-breaking box-office success. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, directed by Mike Newell, was released in 2005. The fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, directed by David Yates, was released in 2007, featuring a script by screenwriter Michael Goldenberg, who replaced Steve Kloves, writer of the first four films. The film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, directed by Yates, was released in July 2009, followed by the final film which was released in two installments — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010) and Part 2 (2011), also directed by Yates.
In 2012, Rowling released the novel The Casual Vacancy.
Let’s discover together Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the eighth book of the series (2016).
Synopsis:
Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play received its world premiere in London’s West End on 30th July 2016.
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.