J K Rowling: Single mom to the second richest! In the early 1960s, Peter, a chartered engineer for Rolls Royce in Bristol, England, met Anne, a half-French, half-Scottish lab technician, on a train travelling from King’s Cross in London to Arbroath in Scotland. Anne was cold, Peter offered to share his coat with her, and it was love at first sight. Later, Peter proposed to Anne on another train and they married at the age of 19... And thus the story of J K Rowling (and her associations with trains) began.

July 1965

Anne gave birth to Joanne Kathleen Rowling at Chipping Sodbury General Hospital in Gloucestershire.

1974

Rowling’s family moved to Tutshill, near Chepstow in Wales, around Rowling’s ninth birthday. Rowling hated school books, but she was an ardent fan of E Nesbit, Noel Streatfield, Paul Gallico's Manxmouse, C S Lewis' Narnia series and Elizabeth Goudge's Little White Horse. She wrote her own story about seven cursed diamonds.

1976

At Wyedean Comprehensive school, Jo became friends with Sean Harris, to whom Chamber of Secrets is dedicated. She entertained friends with her long stories during lunch breaks. She considered herself as a pudding-faced child with glasses, "a snotty, swotty little kid" who was very insecure until she got contact lenses. She soon turned to Jane Austen books.

1980

Anne, Rowling's mom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 15. 1983 Rowling went to the University of Exeter to study French and the classics. And she took up a new hobby—collecting odd names.

1985

As part of her course, Rowling had to spend a year in Paris and there she took up her first job, as a teaching assistant. She found time to write during lunch hours in pubs and cafes.

1988

Rowling worked as a secretary in Manchester. But she did not like her job. She used her free time to type stories on the computer.

1990 On a crowded train travelling to King’s Cross, the idea for Harry Potter ‘simply fell’ into her head. She did not have a pen and she was too shy to ask anyone, so she sat and thought for four hours. (The train was delayed.) and the scrawny, be-spectacled boy became more and more real to her. She began writing Philosopher’s Stone that very same evening. December: Anne died at the age of 45 from multiple sclerosis.

1991

Then 26, Rowling moved to Oporto, Portugal, where she got a job teaching English in a language institute. Harry Potter came alive in 10 different first chapters. She also invented a name for the School of Magic—Hogwarts.

1992

Rowling married a Portuguese television journalist.

1993

Rowling gave birth to a daughter and named her Jessica after her idol, author and activist Jessica Mitford. Soon after, Rowling divorced her husband.

1994

Rowling returned to Britain, with baby Jessica and a suitcase full of Harry Potter chapters, in time for Christmas. She headed for Edinburgh, Scotland, where sister Di, who was studying law, lived.

A month later, British Prime Minister John Major made a speech about single mothers being at the root of society's ills.

1995 Di listened to the story and she loved it. Financially, Rowling was in a bad state. She did not have a job, she could not get Jessica admitted to a day care centre. She was severely depressed and this led her to create the Dementors—creatures who suck happy memories from people and drive them to despair. By writing whenever Jessica fell asleep in her pushchair, Rowling finally finished the book. She had to retype it several times because she did not have the money for photocopies.

1996

After a long and hard search for a publisher, during which time she worked as a French teacher, Bloomsbury made an offer in August.

1997 (February)

Life changed for Rowling. She got a record grant of $13,000 from Scottish Arts Council. She also bought a computer to finish the second book.

June: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is published in Britain.

September: US rights to the book were eventually bought for $105,000, an unheard-of amount for a children's author. Rowling bought a $160 jacket to wear to interviews.

1998 (July)

Her second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, is published in Britain.

1999 (July) The third in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is published in Britain and becomes the no. 1 bestseller. The New York Times had the Harry Potter books in the top three positions on its bestseller list and Warner Bros. bought the film rights to the first two books. Rowling demanded that the films be live-action movies and not animations, and that she have script approval. She said that she was particularly keen to watch the Quidditch matches on the big screen. She also wanted Robbie Coltrane to play Hagrid. Mattel Inc., of Barbie fame, bought the merchandising rights to Harry Potter.

2000

Rowling entered the Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list as the 24th-highest earning celebrity in the world, having earned $40 million in 1999. Steve Kloves, director of The Fabulous Baker Boys, began writing the screenplay for the movie.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire released to record sales.

March 2000

Worldwide sales of the first three Harry Potter books stood at 30 million in 35 languages.

2001

Rowling married anaesthetist Dr Neil Murray.

2002

The first Potter movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone released. Became the highest grosser in the US and won Oscar nominations.

2003

The second film in the Harry Potter series released, and repeated the success story of the first movie. The fifth Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix released on June 21.

2005

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince earned The Guinness World Records Award for being the fastest selling book ever. The sixth book of the series sold more copies in 24 hours than The Da Vinci Code sold in a year.

2006 In a poll conducted by The Book Magazine, the British public named Rowling “the greatest living British writer”. She also received a Doctor of Laws (LLD) honorary degree from University of Aberdeen for her "significant contribution to many charitable causes" and "her many contributions to society". December: Rowling revealed the tile of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007

Rowling announced on her website that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would be released on July 21. On a bust in her hotel room (652) at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, she wrote that she had completed the seventh book in that room on 11 January 2007.