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  • It's November, 2006.

  • J.K. Rowling is working in secret...

  • ...on the final chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...

  • ...in a hotel room in Edinburgh.

  • Yeah, I've helpfully made the note for myself:

  • "This will need very serious planning."

  • I don't know when I wrote that.

  • And I was quite right in that.

  • The Harry Potter series has taken 17 years to write.

  • It's an epic saga of childhood confusion, danger and adventure.

  • But it's more than just a children's story.

  • Behind the witchcraft and the wizardry lies an intensely moral fable...

  • ...about good and evil, love and hatred, life and death.

  • My name is James Runcie.

  • I'm a writer and a filmmaker.

  • And I want to find out the secret of J.K. Rowling's success.

  • How has she done it?

  • And where has it all come from?

  • - You look really nice, Jo. - Oh. Thank you.

  • J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life

  • By: www.dementor.ir

  • Extracted By: gharibi6 [at] yahoo.com

  • This is J.K. Rowling's country house in Perthshire.

  • Once inside, I decided to start the film by asking a few direct questions.

  • - What's your favorite virtue? - Courage.

  • - What vice to do you most despise? - Bigotry.

  • - What are you most willing to forgive? - Gluttony.

  • - What's your most marked characteristic? - I'm a trier.

  • - What are you most afraid of? - Losing someone I love.

  • What's the quality you most like in a man?

  • Morals.

  • What's the quality you most like in a woman?

  • Generosity.

  • What do you most value about your friends?

  • Tolerance.

  • What's your principal defect?

  • Short fuse.

  • What's your favorite occupation?

  • - Writing. - What's your dream of happiness?

  • Happy family.

  • The desire for a happy family comes, in part, from a difficult childhood.

  • Like her orphaned hero, Harry Potter...

  • ...Joanne Rowling was brought up on a suburban British street.

  • First in Yate, just outside Bristol...

  • ...and then a few miles down the road, in Winterbourne.

  • The house even had a cupboard under the stairs.

  • But unlike Harry Potter, Jo wasn't made to sleep there.

  • She shares the same birthday as Harry Potter, the 31st of July.

  • And together with her sister, Di, endured similar childhood economies.

  • - What were your haircuts like? - Oh.

  • -That's- That's just not- That's just wrong. - They were terrible.

  • - Honestly. This is child abuse. - They were terrible.

  • I've got it here.

  • - That's not- That- Look at my fringe. - But I was-

  • I don't think anyone can stomach that for long.

  • If you're wondering, Jo is the one on the right.

  • If you weren't used to cutting hair...

  • ...wouldn't you approach it in a gentle, slow manner?

  • - Wouldn't you go to a hairdresser? - Well, maybe they couldn't-

  • Wouldn't you just cut it slowly and not attack it like a hatchet?

  • I do think you've- Mine was always crooked, always.

  • - Did you wear similar clothes? - Oh, God, yes.

  • - Different colors, but... - Yeah, you always had pink.

  • And I always had blue.

  • - Because you were the boy, Jo? - Yeah.

  • - Because you were the eldest? - Yeah, and I was supposed to be a boy.

  • - So- - Simon John.

  • I was supposed to be Simon John. I even know who I was supposed to be.

  • - Had they told you? - Oh, yeah.

  • - She was a massive disappointment. - Yeah.

  • And so then I said quite hopefully:

  • "And when Di came along, were you disappointed too?"

  • "No."

  • I said, "Was that because you found out it was quite nice to have a girl?"

  • "No."

  • So then I just went upstairs and wept.

  • When Jo was 9 years old, the family moved to a village outside Chepstow...

  • ...on the edge of the Forest of Dean.

  • Here was a location that offered a whole range of imaginative possibilities...

  • ...magical creatures, mystery and intrigue.

  • I'm very drawn to forests.

  • And it's my favorite part of the Hogwarts grounds.

  • The advantage of a forest is it can be so many things.

  • It can be a place of enchantment.

  • You never imagine a crowd in a forest. It's a solitary place.

  • Is it because it used to be a place of shelter and safety to us, I suppose.

  • So I think- I'm very drawn to them. Even though they can be spooky.

  • Jo wrote stories from an early age.

  • There was resonant material all around her.

  • She even lived next door to a graveyard.

  • The family lived in this house.

  • Jo and her sister, Di, earned extra pocket money...

  • ...as part-time cleaners of St. Luke's church.

  • I cannot overstate how cold it got...

  • ...in this church in winter when we were cleaning it. It was freezing.

  • For a pound each. It's tragic, really.

  • We must be in here loads.

  • Because we used to sign this book all the time.

  • Oh, God, I know- Oh, look, it's me. There I am.

  • Me and Di together.

  • "Joanne Rowling, age 12. Dianne Rowling, age 10."

  • Ah. There's a name I stole for Harry Potter.

  • For an unpleasant character as well.

  • Hide the book. Lock it away.

  • Heh, heh. Forgotten about that.

  • Yes.

  • Jo was the only member of the family to attend church services regularly...

  • ...and was baptized here at the age of 11.

  • Do you believe in God?

  • Yes.

  • I do- I do struggle with it.

  • I couldn't pretend that I'm not doubt-ridden about a lot of things...

  • ...and that would be one of them. But I would say yes.

  • Do you think there's a life beyond this of some kind?

  • Yes, I think I do.

  • Jo's religious belief...

  • ...and her thoughts about love, death and the afterlife were severely tested...

  • ...when her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1980.

  • I was 15 when she was diagnosed.

  • But we now know that she was showing signs...

  • ...probably from when I was about 10 or 11.

  • She would have odd losses of feeling in limbs.

  • Her balance- Her balance actually was poor for a long time.

  • And then it just got worse and worse and she decided it was time to visit the doctor...

  • ...but she wasn't expecting to hear anything.

  • And then, you know, a year of tests and there we were.

  • She had a very virulent form of the illness.

  • And at that time there were no drug treatments at all.

  • They said, "Well, you've got multiple sclerosis. See you. "

  • The illness was to have a devastating impact on the two girls.

  • Particularly as they found their father difficult.

  • One of the reasons Harry Potter is so full of idealized father figures...

  • ...Hagrid, Dumbledore and Sirius Black...

  • ...is that Jo's relationship with her own father was far from ideal.

  • I was very frightened of my father for a very long time.

  • And- But also tried-

  • Well, it's a common combination, isn't it?

  • I also tried desperately to get his approval...

  • ...and make him happy, I suppose.

  • And then there came a point, quite shamingly late in life...

  • ...where I couldn't do that anymore.

  • And so I haven't had any contact with my father now for a few years.

  • The absence of any meaningful relationship with her father...

  • ...and the long, slow loss of her mother...

  • ...are two of the most important influences on Jo's writing.

  • Ann Rowling died in 1990.

  • She never knew about Harry Potter...

  • ...or the phenomenal success her daughter was about to enjoy.

  • The death of Joanne Rowling's mother was to have a profound effect on her writing.

  • In many ways, the whole of Harry Potter is one giant attempt to reclaim a childhood.

  • "You think the dead we have loved ever truly leave us?

  • You think that we don't recall them more clearly then ever in times of great trouble?"

  • I'd been writing for six months before she died.

  • The weird thing is the essential plot didn't change after my mother died.

  • But everything deepened and darkened.

  • Harry was always going to lose his parents.

  • And it was always going to be a quest, really...

  • ...to avenge them, but to avenge everyone against this creature...

  • ...this being who believes that he can make himself immortal by killing other people.

  • So that's something I created before she died...

  • ...but, yes, it seeped into every part of the books.

  • I think, in retrospect, now I've finished, I see just how much it informed everything.

  • Was she the first person you saw dead?

  • No.

  • Because I didn't see her dead.

  • Which was in difference to my father's wishes.

  • I wanted to see her and he didn't want me to see her...

  • ...and I, mistakenly, as I look back...

  • ...I agreed not too.

  • And I really, deeply regret that.

  • I really, really, really wish I'd seen her.

  • It didn't matter what she looked like. I would have make it easier.

  • Because I do believe that the truth-

  • Which is another theme in the books and certainly stems from my own past.

  • I think that the truth is always easier than a lie or an evasion.

  • Easier to deal with.

  • And easier to live with.

  • After her mother's death...

  • ...Jo moved to Portugal to teach English as a Foreign Language.

  • She married Jorge Arantes, a television journalist.

  • Together they had a daughter, Jessica.

  • But the marriage failed after two years.

  • Jo succumbed to depression.

  • I'd had a short and really quite catastrophic marriage...

  • ...and I'm left with this baby and I've got to get this baby back to Britain...

  • ...and I've got to rebuild us a life.

  • And adrenalin kept me going through that, and it was only when I came to rest...

  • ...that it hit me what a complete mess I had made of my life.

  • And that hit me quite hard.

  • We were as skint as you can be without being homeless.

  • In other words, we were existing entirely on benefits.

  • And at that point I was definitely clinically depressed.

  • And that's just characterized for me by a numbness, a coldness...

  • ...and an inability to believe that you will feel happy again...

  • ...or that you could feel lighthearted again.

  • It was just all the color drained out of life, really.

  • And I loved Jessica very, very much...

  • ...and was terrified something was going to happen to her.

  • Because I think I got into that very depressive mindset...

  • ...where everything's gone wrong...

  • ...so this one good thing in my life will now go wrong as well.

  • So it was almost a surprise to me every morning that she was still alive.

  • I kept expecting her to die or- It was a bad, bad time.

  • Jo's depression inspired her creation of the Dementors in the Harry Potter series.

  • "Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth.

  • They infest the darkest, filthiest places.

  • They glory in decay and despair.

  • They drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them.

  • Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory...

  • ...will be sucked out of you."

  • The Harry Potter books may be located in an alternative fantasy world...

  • ...but they're filled with the pain and dilemmas of real life.

  • They address serious moral questions about the nature of trust...

  • ...loyalty, integrity, and the need to make a stand against evil.

  • Through the series Harry Potter has to learn what it means to be a force for good...

  • ...against the dark arts of Lord Voldemort.

  • I think we all understand what an act of evil is.

  • And Voldemort qualifies extravagantly for acts of evil.

  • He has killed not out of self-defense, not to protect...

  • ...not for any of the reasons that we might all be able to envisage...

  • ...or most of us could envisage ourselves killing...

  • ...in certain extreme situations.

  • If people we loved were threatened or in war.

  • He'd killed cold-bloodedly, sometimes for enjoyment...

  • ...and for his own personal gain.

  • I call that evil.

  • And, yes, at the end of the book you have a clash of two utterly, utterly different...

  • ...again, for want of a better word, souls.

  • One that has been maimed and has become less than human...

  • ...because to me "human" includes the capacity to love.

  • And Voldemort has deliberately dehumanized himself.

  • And this very- This flawed, vulnerable, damaged...

  • ...and yet still fighting, still loving...

  • ...still daring to love and daring to hope, soul, which is Harry.

  • And they meet and they clash.

  • And it's what happens when they clash that gives us our denouement.

  • Jo locks herself in the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh...

  • ...to work on the crucial final chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

  • It's January the 11 th, 2007...

  • ...and the end of 17 years of writing.

  • Yeah, I think I've finished.

  • - Hey, Jo, well done. - Thank you.

  • Well, you don't know, it might be rubbish.

  • Some people will loathe it.

  • They'll absolutely loathe it.

  • But the thing is, that's as it should be.

  • Because for some people to love it, others must loathe it.

  • That's just in the nature of the plot.

  • Some people won't be happy because what they wanted to happen hasn't happened.

  • And to an extent there's so much expectation from the hardcore fans...

  • ...that I'm not sure I could ever match up to it...

  • ...but I'm- Well, I'm actually really, really happy with it.

  • So it's very odd to think that this will be broadcast after loads of people have read it.

  • And people may right now be throwing things at the screen.

  • But I am. I'm really happy with it. I like it.

  • And I don't always feel like that.

  • Jo puts on the page numbers, saves the document...

  • ...and plays Lilly Allen's "Smile".

  • It's almost impossible to describe the level of expectation...

  • ...surrounding this one woman...

  • ...as she goes through the final stages towards publication.

  • The process all seems so normal. Almost boring.

  • But this is now the most valuable manuscript in publishing history.

  • She takes it in person to her agent, Christopher Little, in London.

  • The handover is at Heathrow airport...

  • ...at 10:43 on Friday the 12th of January, 2007.

  • The manuscript is taken to Jo's editor.

  • After she's read it, she goes through it page by page...

  • ...checking that every loose end is tied up.

  • The publishers plan the book launch...

  • ...and discussions concern how many copies J.K. Rowling will be able to sign.

  • A signing that will happen at midnight on publication day.

  • But this will be about, somewhere between-

  • Well, about 2000 children for argument's sake.

  • - Jo's agreed to sign for eight hours. - Yes, she has.

  • You can't get that many people in anywhere.

  • Everyone here is forbidden to reveal anything about the plot to anyone.

  • We want everybody to get the book at the same time.

  • And then everybody will know what happens at the same time.

  • Depending on how fast they read, of course.

  • So you're not gonna tell me what happens.

  • I'm not gonna tell you what happens.

  • Can't tell you what happens. Be shot.

  • Would you lose your job if you told me?

  • I can't tell you that, James.

  • "Well, well, Mr. Potter, the whole thing starts with The Tale of the Three Brothers. "

  • On April the 23rd, Stephen Fry records the audio book.

  • "The stuff was quite disgusting.

  • As though someone had liquidized bogie-flavored Every Flavor Beans. "

  • He poses with Jo for photographs.

  • Big eyes are great, Stephen.

  • Jo, keep engaged. Yeah.

  • - Sorry. - It's all right.

  • The Chinese have a saying: Be careful what you wish for.

  • I wondered how much J.K. Rowling wanted all this fame.

  • I wished to be published.

  • And I wished more than anything in the world to be a writer.

  • Did I wish-?

  • It never occurred to me in a million years, James...

  • ...that people would search my dustbins...

  • ...pull a long-lens camera on me on the beach, you know.

  • Never occurred to me a journalist would bang on the door...

  • ...of one of my oldest friends and offer her money to talk about me.

  • Never occurred to me that my children would be scrutinized...

  • ...to see how spoiled they were because their parent was famous.

  • Three weeks before the launch of the final book...

  • ...Jo attends the film premier of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...

  • ...the fifth book in the series.

  • It's a starry, glamorous occasion.

  • And Jo is expected to behave like a film star.

  • But she is a writer.

  • And when she started, she could hardly have expected all this attention.

  • What about the razzmatazz and all that stuff?

  • Well, some of it's fun.

  • And some of it's, frankly, horrible.

  • The fun bits are when you get to talk to people who have read your books.

  • That's always great.

  • What I find difficult is the kind of stagy...

  • ...midnight moment business.

  • I'm not- Because I'm not very good at it.

  • I don't think that makes me a better person because I'm not good at it...

  • ...I hasten to add, but I'm not good at it.

  • I'm not a natural ta-da kind of person.

  • I get all uptight about having to do that sort of stuff, and I feel like a prat.

  • People definitely expect you to be visibly enjoying yourself.

  • And I think Quentin Crisp said that was the secret to being good on television.

  • Just look happy to be there.

  • And I haven't always looked happy to be there.

  • In fact sometimes I've looked bloody miserable to be there.

  • And I know that that's not televisually good...

  • ...but I'm, you know.

  • I've got better. I'm having quite a good time here.

  • In a factory in Suffolk, under conditions of extreme secrecy...

  • ...the book is being printed.

  • So far the Harry Potter series has sold 350 million copies...

  • ...in 65 different languages.

  • The conclusion to the series is about to become the fastest-selling book in history.

  • Harry Potter is a global phenomenon.

  • And J.K. Rowling is now in demand all over the world.

  • It's clearly a story with a happy ending.

  • Here she is with her husband, Neil...

  • ...on a private jet her publisher has hired for them.

  • He's a doctor.

  • They married in 2001 and have two children, David and Mackenzie.

  • I wondered what their marriage was like...

  • ...and if there were tensions.

  • What is J.K. Rowling like to live with?

  • - Jo, uh- - Tell the truth.

  • Yeah. I only tell the truth.

  • Jo detaches- When she's very stressed...

  • ...she'll detach herself and only trust one person and that's herself.

  • So everyone else gets blocked out...

  • ...and she becomes more and more stressed...

  • ...and less and less able to accept any help.

  • So that's presumably quite stressful for you.

  • Oh, it is stressful. Um...

  • Basically the barriers go up. And it's not just me, but it's everyone else around her.

  • Only one person is trusted, and she's gotta do everything herself...

  • ...despite the fact that...

  • ...you know, it's not possible to do everything herself.

  • But Jo's single-mindedness has led to the most anticipated book launch in history.

  • On July the 20th, 2007...

  • ...at the Natural History Museum in London, 1700 people picked out of a lottery...

  • ...of 90,000 applicants await J.K. Rowling's arrival.

  • You have millions of fans waiting for this book all over the world.

  • How do you deal with that level of expectation?

  • It swings between, on this book, thinking:

  • "It's the best I can do. It's how I always planned it to end.

  • So that's gonna have to be good enough. "

  • And occasionally you think, "Well, how can I ever live up to this?"

  • Two hours to go, Jo's in her car on the way to the launch.

  • I can't believe I'm here.

  • I'm even more excited than I thought I would be.

  • Do you know, people queuing in Piccadilly two days ago from Belgium?

  • I also really, really want a cigarette right now.

  • And when I said that to Neil, he said, "Have you got one?"

  • I should've done, but then I'd have been hooked.

  • Tomorrow, I would've gone out and bought 20. I am a...

  • I can't smoke.

  • With me, it's 40 a day or it's nothing.

  • The book is embargoed until one second past midnight.

  • At that point, J.K. Rowling will open Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...

  • ...and begin to read.

  • The countdown takes place worldwide.

  • Seven! Six! Five!

  • Four! Three!

  • Two! One!

  • Chapter one: "The Dark Lord Ascending. "

  • "The two men appeared out of nowhere...

  • ...a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane.

  • For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other's chests.

  • Then, recognizing each other...

  • ...they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks...

  • ...and started walking briskly in the same direction. "

  • As Jo reads, fans all over the world collect their copies at last.

  • Best day of our lives.

  • It feels amazing having this in our hands, finally, after waiting for 10 years.

  • - And 16 hours today. - And 16 hours.

  • Oh, my God. I can't even believe that I can go back to the hotel room and read this.

  • I can read this. I can read Harry Potter.

  • Does it really matter now if I get drunk and disorderly?

  • I finished the books.

  • In London, from 20 past midnight until 7 in the morning...

  • ...J.K. Rowling signed 1700 copies of her book.

  • Do you know what, Hugo?

  • You will find someone who is called Hugo in this book.

  • In the first 24 hours, 2.65 million books are bought in the United Kingdom...

  • ...and 8.3 million books are sold in the United States.

  • That's over 7000 copies a minute.

  • What readers find at the end of the last book...

  • ...is that this has been a story about the redemptive power of love.

  • But if you don't want to know the ending...

  • ...this is the time to look away for a couple of minutes.

  • I felt it would be a betrayal of the character...

  • ...if I showed Harry doing anything other...

  • ...than living what all along he has discovered to be true...

  • ...which is that love is the strongest power there is.

  • And I thought a lot about people who had been through terrible things like wars...

  • ...and having to come home and rebuild...

  • ...and espouse normality after seeing horrors...

  • ...has always seemed to me such a courageous thing to do.

  • And climbing back to normality after trauma...

  • ...is much, much harder- It's much harder to rebuild...

  • ...than to destroy.

  • In some ways, it would've been a neat ending to kill him-

  • A neater ending to kill him.

  • But I thought it would've been a betrayal...

  • ...because I wanted my hero, and he's my hero...

  • ...to do what I think is the most noble thing.

  • So he came back from war, and he tried to build a better world, I suppose...

  • ...as corny as that sounds.

  • Both on a small scale, for a family, and a larger scale.

  • Jo ends the series by giving Harry a family.

  • She's worked out the future of all the surviving characters...

  • ...and draws out a family tree for the Potters and the Weasleys.

  • Victoire, who's in the epilogue, she is so named...

  • ...because she was born on the anniversary of the battle that finished it all.

  • Which is the second of May, if anyone's been paying attention.

  • And then, Charlie hadn't children or marriage.

  • Is he gay?

  • Dumbledore's gay.

  • I told a reader that once, and I thought she was gonna slap me.

  • But I always saw Dumbledore as gay.

  • Um, no, I don't think Charlie's gay.

  • Just more interested in dragons than women.

  • Percy married Audrey.

  • Don't you think that's a very Percy-like wife's name?

  • And they had Molly and Lucy.

  • And then Fred. Poor Fred died in 1997.

  • And then George. A lot of readers ask me, "Was George all right?"

  • Of course he wouldn't be all right, would he?

  • That's the reality. I can't-

  • But I think that he married Angelina, who was actually Fred's ex, so you can...

  • Maybe it's a bit unhealthy, but I think that they would've been happy.

  • As happy as he could be without Fred. I think he would've felt...

  • ...like part of himself died.

  • Then there's Ginny, who marries Harry.

  • And Ginny marries Harry...

  • ...and they have James Sirius, godparents Ron and Hermione.

  • They have Albus Severus. He's the one I'm most interested in.

  • And then, third, Lily Luna, for their dear friend.

  • And what happens to Luna?

  • Oh, Luna marries Rolf Scamander, who is the grandson of a great naturalist...

  • ...so they'd have a very interesting life, globetrotting and looking for weird animals.

  • But I think she'd have twin boys.

  • But later. That would be much later than this lot...

  • ...who all settled down earlier.

  • And are they happy?

  • Um, yes, I think so.

  • My lot are all happy.

  • - The twin boys have got names too? - Lorcan and Lysander.

  • - If that's all right with you. - Very Shakespearian.

  • I can't help it. You know what it was like?

  • It was like running a race, and you get to the finishing line...

  • ...and you're running too fast to stop, so I do know what happened afterwards.

  • I couldn't stop my imagination doing that.

  • So I know this sounds an awful lot of detail to go into for your own satisfaction...

  • ...and not because you're planning to write more books, but that's just how it was.

  • I couldn't stop. I had to know. I had to know what happened next.

  • Well, you always have to know more than you put in.

  • Yeah. Yeah. And I carry that on into another generation...

  • ...but, yes, I...

  • So all of that could be another book.

  • Yeah.

  • Don't. Don't. Don't. I know it can't-

  • It can't be.

  • No. I think it would- You've got- No. I think it's definitely time to stop.

  • Time to stop now.

  • It gives me a certain satisfaction to say what I thought happened...

  • ...and to tell other people that because, um...

  • Because I would like my version to be the official version still...

  • ...even though I've not written it in a book.

  • Because it's my world.

  • But, no, I don't want to write any more Hogwarts books.

  • It's clear that Jo has come to the end of a massive piece of writing.

  • She's found a kind of closure, both in her work and in her family life.

  • I'm making David's birthday cake because he's 4 tomorrow.

  • But it's just the family tea birthday cake, because the day after that...

  • ...we have the party for all his friends and then he gets a shop-made...

  • ...Lightning McQueen, from the Disney-Pixar film with which he is obsessed.

  • Baking really reminds me of my mother.

  • She made fantastic cakes. So that really makes me feel...

  • ...like I'm doing the proper motherly thing when I'm making birthday cakes.

  • And David really likes my cakes, particularly.

  • Did you grow up with the smell of baking?

  • Yeah. My mom was a good cook...

  • ...but she didn't get to stretch her wings much...

  • ...because my father greatly mistrusted foreign food.

  • But on cakes and buns and bread, she was fantastic.

  • And that was permissible...

  • ...so that's where she got to show her paces, as it were.

  • The memory of childhood is clearly one of Jo's main themes.

  • But now that she and Harry Potter have families...

  • ...has she lost her principle inspiration?

  • I'm happier now than I've ever been in my life.

  • I'm happier now than I was as a child, teenager, young adult.

  • No, I think middle age is probably gonna be my time.

  • If her life and her writing have been some kind of struggle for completion...

  • ...and she's now found it, what, if anything, is she going to do next?

  • Has she written her last book?

  • The Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh.

  • The top brass of both Warner Bros. and Universal Studios...

  • ...have flown over for a meeting with J.K. Rowling.

  • Hollywood comes to her.

  • She doesn't need to go to Hollywood.

  • They're discussing the building...

  • ...of a massive 20-acre Harry Potter theme park in Florida...

  • ...and are seeking her approval.

  • You know what? Sitting in a room full of people...

  • ...who are trying to impress you...

  • ...that's when I feel I'm at my most fraudulent.

  • Because I feel like I'm 13, and they're all grown-ups.

  • And I cover that up quite well, but I just-

  • I often think, "Why are you all looking at me for?"

  • Because for years, I was the least important person in the room...

  • ...and I was doodling when I should've been taking minutes...

  • ...and actually writing Harry Potter stories.

  • Howler is floating in space.

  • And its mouth is moving, but you can't hear what it's saying.

  • But if you stand in the perfect spot right in front of this window...

  • ...we have what's called HyperSonic Sound, and only that one person can hear...

  • ...what the Howler is saying.

  • I think it must be quite odd to be J.K. Rowling.

  • Half of her life seems almost normal, while the other half seems completely mad.

  • A sensor will tell that there's somebody there.

  • It will open its eyes, growl and lunge at you.

  • There's also the question of money.

  • - According to some press reports- - Yeah.

  • You have £570 million.

  • - Is this true? - Those reports are bollocks.

  • - How much do you have? - Loads, but I'm not telling you how much.

  • - But it's definitely not 570 million. - Why won't you tell me?

  • Because I think it's private.

  • - But you have lots of millions of pounds? - Yeah, I do.

  • Money means that J.K. Rowling...

  • ...can afford to do her Christmas shopping in Tiffany.

  • Here's a new cuff that we have.

  • - It's wonderful. - Isn't this great?

  • Yeah.

  • She also allows herself one particular indulgence:

  • Shoes.

  • Why do girls love shoes so much?

  • - I want all of those. - You're really nice.

  • Do you worry about people asking you for money all the time?

  • - No. - Do they?

  • Honestly. Um...

  • Well, strangers write to me and ask for money.

  • A lot. Um...

  • And sometimes I've given it.

  • But with people that I know, it does change your relationships.

  • Anyone who says differently is a fool or a liar.

  • It does add a dimension to your relationships.

  • When your status changes initially, I think.

  • But now, as time's gone on, I think my friends have made an adjustment...

  • ...and I've made an adjustment.

  • And my experience is that your best friends...

  • ...are happy to take in the spirit that it's given...

  • ...and you know, we can all relate pretty much as we ever did.

  • Do you worry that people are gonna-?

  • That people, at some point, are going to ask you?

  • Is it like a sort of shadow in a conversation? Do you think:

  • - "I bet they're gonna ask me for money. " - No. No, definitely not.

  • Definitely not.

  • I don't walk around at all thinking...

  • ...that everyone wants to get a bit of money from me.

  • Are you leading up to touching me? For-

  • Do you want a loan?

  • Every week, Jo Rowling receives up to 1500 letters...

  • ...either from fans or from people asking for charitable donations.

  • That's over 75,000 letters a year.

  • Initially, I was very disorganized with my giving.

  • I didn't have a thought-through system.

  • And, again, that was becoming a bit overwhelming as well.

  • So I have a charitable trust now.

  • And we've refined the objectives of the trust...

  • ...which was a very useful exercise.

  • So the trust does multiple sclerosis research and that's one side of what it does.

  • And then it mainly targets projects, large or small-scale...

  • ...that are to do with the alleviation of social deprivation...

  • ...with a particular emphasis on women's and children's charities.

  • ...as we discussed.

  • Yeah. So I'm saying okay to that point, not the other point.

  • I become very angry...

  • ...when it comes to issues concerning social deprivation and social exclusion.

  • And I become most irritated and angry by people who have really no idea...

  • ...how it feels to exist in poverty.

  • And how disadvantage casts a sometimes irreparable blight...

  • ...over people's lives.

  • And I'm aggravated to real fury...

  • ...by the fact that there is a section of our society that can't join the dots...

  • ...and doesn't see how issues that affect even them...

  • ...their safe lives...

  • ...such as crime and drugs...

  • ...things that touch the middle classes, have their roots often in terrible injustice.

  • And it's amazing how people can't and don't care enough...

  • ...to try and redress some of those issues.

  • Those things make me very angry.

  • Jo Rowling has given away millions of pounds.

  • She's never forgotten what it was like to have very little money.

  • Amidst all the fame and the trappings of success...

  • ...it's probably quite easy to lose sight of who she was...

  • ...when she started out.

  • So I wanted to take her back to her old flat in Leith...

  • ...where she finished the very first Harry Potter book...

  • ...and find out what her life had been like then.

  • It's only a few miles from her main house in Edinburgh...

  • ...but this is the first time she's been back.

  • - Did you write in here? - Mm-hm.

  • This is really the room.

  • Well, I finished Philosopher's Stone in here.

  • This is really where I turned my life around.

  • Completely. I mean, my life changed so much in this flat.

  • I feel I really became myself here, you know, everything was stripped away.

  • I'd made such a mess of things...

  • ...but that was freeing.

  • So I just thought, "Well, I wanna write. "

  • "Sit down and write the book. And what is the worst that can happen?

  • It gets down by every publisher in Britain, big deal. "

  • So, you know...

  • ...it was really back-to-the-wall time here.

  • My bedroom's- Well, "my bedroom"- The bedroom is a lot tidier now, God.

  • God, that's mad.

  • This was a tip when I left it.

  • Oh, look. Harry Potter books.

  • Now, that is really freaky.

  • And for years now I felt like if it all disappeared-

  • And some days I do feel like that. Is it real?

  • Then this is where I would come back to, you know.

  • This would be my baseline. I'd be back in Leith.

  • And obviously if I had known that 10 years-

  • Well, what was it? Yeah, 10 years on...

  • ...I'd come back here with a film crew...

  • ...and there would be my published books in someone else's bookcase in this room...

  • I mean, it's really incredible to me.

  • It really did- I mean...

  • Yes.

  • Because it's such a well-worn part of my story now...

  • ...it's a big yawn to hear...

  • ...how I wrote it...

  • ...as though it was all some sort of publicity stunt I did for a year.

  • But it was my life, and it was very hard.

  • And I didn't know that it was gonna be this...

  • ...fairy-tale resolution.

  • And I- Coming back here is just full of ghosts.

  • For most writers, the act of writing is a form of therapy.

  • A way of making sense of the world and their place within it.

  • Now, Jo Rowling is writing again.

  • So Jo, what are you writing now?

  • A story that I describe as a political fairy tale.

  • And it's for, I think, slightly younger children.

  • So that will probably be the next thing that I finish.

  • I'm not in a mad hurry to publish. I would like to take my time.

  • - Why? - Because I've lived with deadlines...

  • ...for 10 years and I'm currently able to luxuriate...

  • ...in the fact that no one's really expecting it.

  • No one knows anything about it, so I feel as though...

  • ...I've gone back to the beginning of where I was...

  • ...on Philosopher's Stone when it was my private world.

  • And I'd really like to enjoy that sole possession for a while.

  • Political fairy tale. Well, that's all you're prepared to say?

  • I think that's quite a lot, James.

  • It's the end of a year of filming.

  • There are just a few more questions I want to ask.

  • When were you happiest?

  • Hospital for the birth of each of my children...

  • ...and Venice last year with Neil.

  • What's your biggest regret?

  • That I didn't keep my mother on the phone longer the last time I spoke to her.

  • What do you still want to achieve?

  • I want to get better.

  • Do you ever feel that you just got lucky?

  • Having the idea was lucky.

  • Do you ever a feel a fraud?

  • Less as I get older, but I have done.

  • What keeps you going?

  • I'm a born trier.

  • Why do you still write?

  • Because I love it and I need it.

  • How would you like to be remembered?

  • As someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.

  • By: www.dementor.ir

It's November, 2006.

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