Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode will be on another rags to riches story, and will be on the queen of the literary world J.K. Rowling.

Born in Yate, England J.K. Rowling had a difficult and somewhat unhappy childhood with a strained relationship with her father and her mother being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Unfortunately, her mother passed without her ever knowing that her daughter was writing the Harry Potter series which was eventually destined to be the best-selling book series in history.

Her idea for the series was conceived in 1990 on a four-hour delayed train journey, where she began writing immediately once she had reached her destination. Whilst writing the first Harry Potter book Rowling and her daughter were staying with her sister living off welfare with no stable income. The first Harry Potter book was finished in 1995 and was rejected by a plethora of publishers before Bloomsbury finally gave her a deal with an advanced payment for the book for the tidy sum of 1,500 pounds.

Less than 10 years later she was the first person to become a billionaire by writing books.

Today’s mnemonic will be on J.K. Rowlings top 5 books.

So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

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Wikipedia Summary

Joanne Rowling CH OBE FRSL (/ˈroʊlɪŋ/ ROH-ling;[1] born 31 July 1965), known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote Harry Potter, a seven-volume fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has sold over 600 million copies, been translated into 84 languages, and spawned a global media franchise including films and video games. The Casual Vacancy (2012) was her first novel for adults. She writes Cormoran Strike, an ongoing crime fiction series, under the alias Robert Galbraith. However, her opinions on transgender people and related civil rights since 2017 have been described as transphobic by critics and LGBT rights organisations. They have divided feminists, fuelled debates on freedom of speech and cancel culture, and prompted declarations of support for transgender people from the literary, arts, and culture sectors.

Born in Yate, Gloucestershire, Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in 1990, when she conceived the idea, for the Harry Potter series. The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, the birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband, and relative poverty until the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in 1997. Six sequels followed, concluding with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007). By 2008, Forbes had named her the world's highest-paid author.

The novels follow a boy called Harry Potter as he attends Hogwarts (a school for wizards), and battles Lord Voldemort. Death and the divide between good and evil are the central themes of the series. Its influences include Bildungsroman (the coming-of-age genre), school stories, fairy tales, and Christian allegory. The series revived fantasy as a genre in the children's market, spawned a host of imitators, and inspired an active fandom. Critical reception has been more mixed. Many reviewers see Rowling's writing as conventional; some regard her portrayal of gender and social division as regressive. There were also religious debates over the Harry Potter series.

Rowling has won many accolades for her work. She has received an OBE and made a Companion of Honour for services to literature and philanthropy. Harry Potter brought her wealth and recognition, which she has used to advance philanthropic endeavours and political causes. She co-founded the charity Lumos and established the Volant Charitable Trust, named after her mother. Rowling's charitable giving centres on medical causes and supporting at-risk women and children. In politics, she has donated to Britain's Labour Party and opposed Scottish independence and Brexit.

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling]

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Mnemonic

J.K. Rowling – Top 5 Books Mnemonic – DoG SHoP

(Picture J.K. Rowling going to the dog shop with her West Highland Terrier Bronte for some treats and toys)

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Five Fun Facts

1. J.K. Rowling used to be the family entertainer constantly writing and telling stories. Her very first book was about a rabbit who was called “Rabbit” when she was just six years old, and her first novel was at the age of 11.

2. As stated in the Wikipedia article her first name is Joanne, but what does the “K” stand for? Apparently, her publisher, Bloomsbury suggested to her to add initials to her Harry Potter books, so she decided to pay tribute to her grandmother Kathleen and added a “K.”

3. J.K. Rowling has had to deal with her fair share of rejection. One of these rejections was by Oxford University to study English Literature where she was not accepted, but was then able to pursue her love for French at the University of Exeter.

4. Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression. This depression may have been the spark to ignite her writing the Harry Potter book series, as she felt that she had nothing to lose even if it was rejected by all publishers.

5. In 2011 J.K. Rowling became the first female billionaire novelist. This was recognised on the Forbes’ list, but was then removed after she gave away 100 million (in pounds) to charity.

Now just speaking of charity, Adele and J.K. Rowling got together to raise money and awareness for sea life by taking it in turns reading “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) while scuba diving 60 ft under the water. And apparently, they had a very catchy phrase for the stunt calling it "Rowling in the Deep!"