6 When J.K. Rowling was working on her first Harry Potter novel, she was so poor that sometimes she did not eat so that her daughter could have food. At other times her dinner consisted of only one Rich Tea biscuit.
There was a time in writer J.K. Rowling’s life when she was living on welfare. Even then she had to spend nights when there was literally no money. At such time, she would spend the night without any food. Whatever money she made at that time, she always ensured that her daughter was fed even if she had to go to sleep with an empty stomach.
According to her, when she got the initial of £2,500 for the first Harry Potter book it seemed like a fortune. That’s because before receiving the initial payment there were days when she went to sleep after having just one Rich Tea biscuit as dinner.(source)
7 J.K. Rowling sent the ending of The Goblet of Fire a year before it was published to a leukemia patient, Natalie McDonald, but she died before reading the email. As a result of Natilie’s death, Rowling named a character after her.
Natalie McDonald from Canada was a fan of Harry Potter novels. When she was diagnosed with leukemia, a terminal illness, a friend of her mother wrote to J.K. Rowling asking her to write to Natalie. She obliged and wrote a letter telling Natalie what happens to each of the main characters in her next, as yet unpublished novel Goblet of Fire. But before Natalie could read the letters, she passed away.
When J.K. Rowling came to know about the demise of Natalie she named a character after her as a tribute. It’s mentioned in the book Goblet of Fire where a girl named Natalie McDonald get’s sorted into the Gryffindor house.(source)
8 J.K. Rowling’s bouts of depression inspired her to create the Dementors in the Harry Potter series.
Dementors are a key characters in the Harry Potter series. They are described as a humanoid-shaped being covered in hooded black cloth. Dementors are blind but can sense if anyone is near them by sensing their emotions. They also have a large gaping hole in place of mouth through which they suck out the soul of their victim. This process is called “dementor’s kiss” and it leaves the victim in a state worse than death.
According to J.K. Rowling, the character of dementors is inspired by her period of severe depression before her success. She describes the feeling as an “absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad.”(source)
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9 J.K. Rowling is the first person to become a billionaire by writing books but she lost her billionaire status because she donated so much money to charity.
Every year Forbes magazine produces an annual list of billionaires. While writing the first Harry Potter novel, little did writer J.K. Rowling know that one day she would gain a proud place in that list. But in 2012 she was dropped from the list. That was the year she lost her billionaire status due to her charitable giving. During 2012 it was estimated that she had given approximately $160 million to charity.
She once said,”You have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.”(source)
10 J.K. Rowling’s parents met each other for the first time at King’s Cross Station. That’s why she had used it as the station from where the Hogwart’s Express departs.
In the Harry Potter novels, Platform 9-3/4 in King’s Cross Station is a crucial embarkation point. It is the gate to the train station of the magical world. For J.K. Rowling, this station holds a special place in her heart. That’s because her parents met on a train to Scotland which departed from King’s Cross station.(source)
