The Shy Sorceress

Joanne Rowling is an English fiction writer most famous as author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, which _________________ (1 – to gain) international attention and ____________ (2 – to win) multiple awards. In the early 1990s she was unknown and poor, a single mom on welfare who sometimes pretended to browse in maternity stores so she could cadge a free diaper in the changing room. Now, after her Harry Potter books and the movies and an armada of related merchandise, Rowling _________________ (3 – to believe / to be) the wealthiest woman in the United Kingdom, well ahead of even Queen Elizabeth II. The rise distinguishes Rowling as Britain’s wealthiest self-made woman, the richest person in British show business and the world’s wealthiest female author. In February 2004, Forbes magazine estimated her fortune as £576 million (just over US$1 billion), making her the first person to become a US dollar billionaire by ____________ (4 – to write) books.

J. K. Rowling was born in 1965. After ___________ (5 – to study) French and Classics at Exeter University she ___________ (6 – to move) to London __________ (7 – to work) as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International. During this period she had the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry while she was on a four-hour, delayed train trip between Manchester and London. When she ______________ (8 – to reach) her destination, she already ____________ (9 – to have) the characters and a good part of the plot for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in her head, which she began _____________ (10 – to work) on during her lunch hours.

In December, 1994, Rowling and her daughter from her brief first marriage moved to Edinburgh. Unemployed and living on state benefits, she _____________ (11 – to complete) her first novel. She ______________________________ (12 – to rumour / to do) some of the work in an Edinburgh cafe in order to escape from her unheated flat. The first book was an unexpectedly huge success. Combined with her earnings for the next three books, she became a billionaire.

Her personal life ________________ (13 – to pick up) too. In 2001, she ______________ (14 – to purchase) a luxurious 19^th-century mansion in Scotland, where she ____________ (15 – to marry) her second husband, Dr. Neil Murray, a steady, brainy anesthetist, in December 2001. In March 2003 they had a son, David. Admitting that Harry is her favourite boy’s name, Rowling wisely __________________ (16 – to avoid / to saddle) her son with that lifelong invitation to teasing. On 23 January 2005, Rowling's second child with Dr. Murray was born, fulfilling Rowling’s lifelong wish to have three children.

Rowling appreciates that she can use her name and money to support worthy charities, including those for one-parent families and victims of multiple sclerosis. ‘One of the few upsides of ______________ (17 – to be) famous is _________________ (18 – to be able) to do something meaningful for causes in which you believe,’ she says.