J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling is allergic to cats and much prefers dogs.

Has pledged a major contribution of $A3.61 million as a reward for the safe return of British girl, Madeleine McCann, who has been missing in Portugal since May 12, 2007.

She claims her first audience for Harry Potter was her daughter, to whom she would read parts of the story that she wrote as a bedtime story.

She originally wrote Harry Potter to pay off her gas bills while living in a tiny flat with her then, baby daughter.

The day she signed her contract for the first Harry Potter novel, the publishing representative told her she would not make any money selling children's books.

One of her favorite movies is The Fabulous Baker Boys, which was written and directed by Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves.

She is a huge fan of Monty Python and claims she uses some of their humour in her Harry Potter books. The two obvious references to the Monty Python sketch, Crunchy Frog, include chocolate frog and cockroach cluster sweets. Monty Python member John Cleese appears in the films.

J.K. writes all her books by hand.

In June 2000, J.K. was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for her services to literature and received it from one of her fans, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.

When J.K. quit smoking, she took up chewing gum and playing Mindsweeper on her computer obsessively. On her official website, she states that she has beaten the expert level, which is the highest level in Mindsweeper with a semi-large board and 99 mines to avoid.

J.K. was born on July 31st, 1965. She gave Harry Potter the same day and month for his birthday but a different year.

When J.K. was a was child, she was considered the bright one while her sister, Diana, was considered the pretty one.

J.K. says that once the Harry Potter series is over, she might start writing a new series or maybe just a sole book as she loves to write, despite knowing it will be difficult to top Harry Potter.

She has written three books to supplement the Harry Potter series; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

J.K.'s last name, Rowling, is pronounced like the word 'rolling' and gets very annoyed when people pronounce it as 'Rawling.'

Before the publication of the first Harry Potter novel, J.K.'s publisher asked her to use the first two initials of her name rather than her full first name so boys wouldn't be biased against a book written a woman. Since she only had one given name, J.K. took 'K' from her favorite grandmother, Kathleen, and used it as her second initial.

Rowling has said that Halloween is one of her favorite holidays, and she usually throws a big party on the day.

Her biggest regret is that her mother never saw her Harry Potter books because she started writing them six months before her mum died of multiple sclerosis.

The character of Gilderoy Lockhart was based on an actual person Rowling knew, but she won't name names.

J.K.'s favorite author is Roddy Doyle.

Part of the manuscript of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

In 2003, unauthorized Chinese-language 'sequels' to the Harry Potter series appeared for sale in the People's Republic of China. These poorly written books contain characters from the works of other authors, including Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and the title character from L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. Ms. Rowling's lawyers announced they would take legal action against the publishers.

On April 3, 2003, J. K. Rowling and Time Warner successfully sued Dutch publishing company Byblos in the Amsterdam High Court. This prevents Byblos publishing Russian author Dmitry Yemets' novel The Magic Double Bass which features a girl wizard, Tanya Grotter. It was deemed to plagiarize Rowling's novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and to infringe her copyright.

As of November 2002, J.K.'s franchise of books have sold over 175,000,000 copies and has been printed in over 200 languages to become the biggest and fastest selling novels ever.

J.K. is one of only two contemporary authors to have a novel spend more than a year on both the New York Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists (the other author being Nicholas Sparks).

In 2002, J.K. Rowling was sued for plagiarism in the District Court of the Southern District of New York by Pennsylvania-based author Nancy Stouffer who claimed that J.K. Rowling had lifted ideas from her 1984 book The Legend of Rah and Muggles, which includes a character called Larry Potter. However the case against J.K. Rowling was dismissed on September 19, 2002, when the judged ruled that Ms. Stouffer had lied to the court and doctored evidence to support her claims.

Her book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was the top-selling book of 2000, with 7 million hardcovers sold.

J.K.'s oldest daughter, Jessica, was born on July 27, 1993, her son, David, was born on March 23, 2003, and her youngest daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling, was born on January 23, 2005.

Before graduating from Exeter University, she didn't have much money, so for friend's birthdays, she wrote them personal little stories.

When writing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, she cried when she killed off a character.

In the United States, J.K.'s first Harry Potter book was titled, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, while in the rest of the world, it is called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."

Hermione, the female hero of the Harry Potter books, is based on Rowling herself.

She is richer than the Queen of England.

In 2003, J.K.'s fifth installment of her Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, became the fastest selling book ever with an average of 220 copies sold per minute in the first 24 hours.