This talk page has a tendency to attract repeated discussions of the same themes. Please read through the list of highlighted discussions below before starting a new one: J.K. Rowling's ethnicity/nationality has been discussed here, here, here and here. Current consensus is that she is British, and that whether she is also English, Scottish or Welsh has no bearing on her work or her biography, and is best not discussed. The topic of her middle/full name has been discussed here, here, here, here, and here. Her full, legal name is simply Joanne Murray - she writes under her maiden name Joanne Rowling, abbreviated to J.K. Rowling. Kathleen is not her name, it was her grandmothers and selected as a middle initial, the reason for the contraction was to remove the gender association from her name. The pronunciation of her name has been discussed here, here, here, and here. She has commented that her name is pronounced like bowling and not like howling. The topics of her political values and communism in the series have been discussed here, here, here (whole page), here and here. She has not publicly espoused any particular political views and any attempt to uncover such views in her works is very likely to violate WP:OR. Topics relating to accusations of plagiarism against Rowling, in court or otherwise, are discussed in Legal disputes over Harry Potter and Harry Potter influences and analogues.

	J. K. Rowling is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
	This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on April 11, 2008.
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	The article J. K. Rowling has been mentioned by a media organization:
	03 February 2009
	Is Wikipedia cracking up?
	Stephen Foley – Irish Independent

[edit] Yate

Please note that Yate is in the county of South Gloucestershire, not Gloucestershire. 24.96.244.134 (talk) 03:33, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

[edit] JK Rowlings Nationality is ENGLISH

What's all this discussion about JK's nationality? She is English. Fact. End of. Her CITIZENSHIP is British. Fact. End of. The UK of GB & NI passport is the only one in the world that ansers the "Nationality" question with a different answer - hence it always says "British Citizen". No other passport in the world answers the question with "citizen" and that's because every other county states the nationality, eg French, German etc. The UK is a political union of four nationalities, but in the Wikipedia question, it asks "nationality", therefore JKR is English. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.110.2.102 (talk) 02:43, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Please read the archives regarding here nationality/Ethnicity. It's been discussed to the death. We don’t need another. 88.109.238.194 (talk) 19:11, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Can I also add JK, has stong connections with Scotland, where she lives. This makes her more BRITISH than English. Does any one agree?

No. If you use that line of argument then Oscar Wilde was British. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.155.64.202 (talk) 14:11, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Légion_d'honneur

JKR has been awarded with the Légion_d'honneur by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sources: http://www.elysee.fr/documents/index.php?mode=view&lang=fr&cat_id=8&press_id=2290
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1095823
189.4.250.18 (talk) 20:22, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

I confirm it, but I can't see where it would fit in the article. -- lucasbfr ^talk 20:27, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

I added mention of it in the 'Personal life' section, where her honorary degrees are covered. That's as good a place as any, without a specific 'Awards and recognition' section. faithless (^speak) 21:31, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Her name

Her real name is Mrs Joanne Murray. I quote from the Guardian "The author - suing under her real name, Mrs Joanne Murray ", the full version of which can be found here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/aug/07/pressandpublishing.privacy). Any concerns, please discuss here before making changes. I think this source is very clear. Also here (http://www.schillings.co.uk/news/private-client-news/JKRowling%E2%80%99ssonwi/), a source which is all of clear, reliable and respected. Barrabhoy (talk) 15:21, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Joanne, herself, mentions that the Gaurdian rarely gets facts straight about her life in fact she dispises them). She has gotten into debates with them about it. But when she began writing her name was Rowling. After marriage it changed. to Murray. the only real part of her pen name that is false is the "K". this is just for clarification (24.22.195.180 (talk) 00:24, 16 June 2009 (UTC))

[edit] After Harry Potter, a matter of tense

In the section, After Harry Potter, the line "Rowling has stated that she plans to continue writing after the publication of the final Harry Potter book" suggests that the final Harry Potter book has not yet been published. 74.70.106.13 (talk) 03:59, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

fixed. Serendi^podous 10:53, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Picture of JK Rowling

The picture is certainly not attractive. It needs a fix. 58.174.49.225 (talk) 08:05, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

Only non-fair use picture available. Serendi^podous 10:53, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] SHE HAS THREE CHILDREN

Why is her eldest daughter, Jessica, not mentioned in this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.208.195.70 (talk) 04:49, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

She is. Serendi^podous 10:52, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, but why is she not mentioned in the "Personal Life" section, while her other two children are? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.151.169.128 (talk) 01:44, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Because the personal life section covers events after Harry Potter. Serendi^podous 14:49, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Why would a "Personal Life" section only cover a time period after a certain event? I think this is misleading, because someone reading only the Personal Life section might conclude, incorrectly, that she only has two children. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.151.169.128 (talk) 17:49, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Twitter

Jo has a Twitter now. http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2009/9/25/jk-rowling-opens-twitter-account --Parodist (talk) 22:19, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

[edit] flogging the ground beside a dead horse

Looking at the pronunciation controversy of a couple of years ago, and the subsequent archives — Can I be the only one to wonder what the heck rohwling is meant to represent, and how it differs from rolling? —Tamfang (talk) 05:21, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Ms. Rowling's religion

I am fairly certain Ms. Rowling is not a member of the Church of Scotland, but rather the Scottish Episcopal Church, which is often confused with the former. This would make her Anglican, not Presbyterian. Some supporting claims can be found in an article by "The Scotsman"[1], in some Anglican sites[2], NNDB[3] or also AllExperts[4]. She also is quoted by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant as having been raised[5][6] in the Church of England, the mother church of Anglicanism; thus for an Anglican living in Scotland, visiting a Scottish Episcopal parish would only be logical. If so, she should accordingly be listed in the category English Anglicans, not English Presbyterians.

At the very least, the claim to her being in the Church of Scotland should be removed and the categorization changed to a neutral version until such time as the truth can be definitively ascertained.

Ethelred Unraed (talk) 14:39, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Rowling was raised in the Church of England, but whether she belongs to the Scottish Episcopal Church is a bit murky it seems. The most detailed reference comes from an article in The Washington Post, which describes her as a member of the Church of Scotland. This is confusing, I must admit. I'll have to track down some more sources. Serendi^podous 14:51, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

FWIW in (much) older revisions of this article, she was indeed listed as being a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and was classified as an English Anglican. Then at some point, that reference disappeared, and some time later the reference to the Church of Scotland appeared. Either way, I'd suggest the reference to at least be changed to just "Christian" (or "Protestant") for now.Ethelred Unraed (talk) 22:25, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Addendum: I have been unable to find any direct quote from her, or an official source of hers, mentioning either the Church of Scotland or the Scottish Episcopal Church after scouring the Web. However, it seems that local Scottish and English media (like the link from The Scotsman above^[1] or also from the British Anglican group Ecclesia^[2]) generally say she's in the Scottish Episcopal Church, if they mention anything at all; the references to the Church of Scotland seem to be mostly from American sources. Meanwhile, the book How Harry Cast His Spell: The Meaning Behind the Mania also says she's in the Scottish Episcopal Church.^[3] But I think the strongest evidence I could find one way or the other is that she and her husband were apparently married by a Scottish Episcopal minister, the Rev. Canon Professor John Richardson of Edinburgh^[4] (though I believe the name of the parish is misspelled in the reference -- should be "Columba", not "Columbia"^[5] -- the same Rev. Canon Richardson is mentioned there). Ethelred Unraed (talk) 23:03, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Clearer to American Readers

I think you should mention that Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the American version. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.161.45.99 (talk) 05:06, 22 December 2009 (UTC)