More words have probably been written about Jo Rowling than the content of all the Harry Potter books put together! Much of it is about her being a single parent who wrote the first Harry Potter novel in a café whilst her small daughter was asleep next to her.

Rather than repeat the story here, you can see full details - and photos - on the Harry Potter pages on the official "Bloomsbury" site - Bloomsbury are the original publishers of Harry Potter's books. You can get lots of useful info there, though the pages on their site are sometimes a bit slow to load. The address is http://www.bloomsbury.com/harrypotter/.

You can also join their "Bloomsbury Web Club" to get advance information on each new Harry Potter book - this should tell you when any further editions will be available - and also an e-mail birthday card signed by J.K. Rowling.

Jo Rowling made an amazing offer to write two extra books linked with the Harry Potter Series -
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and "Quidditch through the Ages"
in aid of "Comic Relief", whose chief executive described Jo's offer as "beyond extraordinary".

These titles were published worldwide on 12th March in aid of the "Red Nose Day" on 16^th March 2001.
According to their site, Comic Relief made an astonishing 61 *million* pounds in 2001.

At 4.30pm on Thursday 12th December 2002 Jo's handwritten "teaser" card about the plot of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was auctioned at Sotheby's to raise funds for "Book Aid International" - Ł24,000 was generated for 18,500 books for schools in Eritrea and other African countries. To find out how your school or Company can help Book Aid, just click here.

Jo became an Ambassador for One Parent Families in 2000, making substantial donations to NCOPF (The National Council for One Parent Families) - for more info see their website here (select "about us"). Jo became President of NCOPF on 16th November 2004.

J.K. ROWLING'S PERSONAL DESKTOP

As most of you will know, Jo Rowling launched her own website some time in 2004, so that's where to go for all the subsequent info on all things Harry Potter :) as well as many other aspects of Jo's life. Always an interesting place to visit! and a fair amount of "hidden stuff" if you have time to look around properly.

Just click here to view (there's a choice of languages).
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