J. K. Rowling, born Joanne Rowling on 31 July 1965, is a British author best known for the Harry Potter series. She conceived the idea in 1990, and the seven years that followed saw the death of her mother, the birth of her first child, divorce and relative poverty, until Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997.
Six sequels followed, ending with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007). The series became the best-selling book series in history, with over 600 million copies sold, translated into 85 languages. She also writes crime fiction under the name Robert Galbraith.