Joanne Kathleen Rowling entered the world in Chipping Sudbury General Hospital in England,  乔.凯瑟琳.罗琳出生在英格兰的一家综合医院里，

a fitting beginning for someone who would later enjoy making up strange names for people, places and games played on flying broomsticks.  这对一个后来喜欢给别人起奇怪名字，喜欢坐着扫帚到处孔跑的小姑娘来说，是个合适的开始;；

Her younger sister was born just under two years later. 她的妹妹两年后来到这个世上。

Rowling remembers that she always wanted to write and that the first story she actually wrote down,  罗琳记得她从小就喜欢写作，

when she was five or six, was a story about a rabbit called Rabbit.  5、6岁时就已经写了一篇跟兔子有关的故事。

Many of her favorite memories center around reading — hearing stories read aloud by her father when she had the measles,  小时候美好的记忆似乎总是围绕阅读的——得麻疹时听爸爸大声讲故事，

enjoying the fantastic adventure stories, reveling in the magical world and her favorite story of all,  读那些奇异 的冒险故事，沉浸在奇妙的故事世界里。

The Little White Horse. 她最喜欢的故事是《小白马》。

At University Rowling took her degree in French and spent one year studying in Paris.  大学里，罗琳主修法语，并在巴黎留学一年。

After college she moved to London to work for Amnesty International as a researcher and bilingual secretary. 毕业后，她搬去伦敦，在国际特救组织担任调查员和双语秘书。

The best thing about working in an office, she has said, was typing up stories on the computer when no one was watching.  罗琳回忆说，那段时间最有趣的事情就是趁办公室没人的时候在电脑上打小说。

During this time, on a particularly long train ride from Manchester to London in the summer of 1990, the idea came to her of a boy who is a wizard.  1990年夏天，罗琳坐在由曼彻斯特出发前往伦敦的火车上，哈利.波特闯入了她的生命。

He attends a school for wizardry — she could see him very plainly in her mind.  她可以在脑海里清晰地勾画他的模样，看到他进入魔法学校。

By the time the train pulled into King’s Cross Station four hours later, many of the characters and the early stages of the plot were fully formed in her head.  4小时后，当火车驶入国王十字车站时，大部分人物和故事的前期框架已经在她的脑海里完全形成了。

The story took further shape as she continued working on it in pubs and cafes over her lunch hours. 当她午餐时间坐在咖啡馆里继续构思时，故事的结构变得更加清晰。

In 1992 Rowling left off working in offices and moved to Portugal to teach English as a Second Language.  1992年，罗琳结束了白领生涯，前往葡萄牙做英语教师，这是她的第二语言。

In spite of her students making jokes about her name (this time they called her “Rolling Stone”)，she enjoyed teaching.  尽管学生们常拿她的名字开玩笑，叫她滚石（英语中Rowling与rolling同音），她仍然非常喜欢教书。

She worked afternoons and evenings, leaving mornings free for writing.  她下午和晚上去学校工作，而上午的自由时间用来写作。

After her marriage to a Portuguese TV journalist ended in divorce, Rowling returned to Britain with her infant daughter and a suitcase full of Harry Potter notes and chapters.  不久，她与一名葡萄牙的电视台记者结婚，但这段婚姻最终以离婚告终。

She settled in Edinburgh to be near her sister and set out to finish the book before looking for a teaching job. 离婚后，罗琳带着女儿和满满一箱子哈利.波特的笔记与手稿回到了英国。为了能住得离妹妹近些，罗琳在爱丁堡定居来，准备在找到新工作前完成这部小说。

Wheeling her daughter’s carriage around the city to escape their tiny, cold apartment, she would duck into coffee shops to write when the baby fell asleep.  她常常用手推车推着女儿四处闲逛，只是为了逃离又小又冷的公寓。她常常会躲到咖啡馆里，趁女儿睡着时写作。

In this way she finished the book and started sending it to publishers.  就这样， 罗琳在咖啡馆里完成了哈利.波特的创作，开始寻找出版商。

It was rejected several times before she found an London agent,  但她的稿件被几次退回，直到她找到了一个伦敦的经纪人。

chosen because she liked his name — Christopher Little, who sold the manuscript to Bloomsbury Children’s Books. 罗琳之所以会找到他，仅仅是因为喜欢他可爱的名字一克里斯多夫.里特，他把手稿卖给了布鲁姆斯伯里儿童书籍出版商。

Rowling was working as a French teacher when she heard that her book about the boy wizard had been accepted for publication.  当罗琳得知这本关于小巫师的小说被出版商接受时，她正在一所学校教法语。

Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone was published in June 1997 and achieved almost instant success.  1997年6月，《哈利.波特与哲学家的石头》一出版，就大获成功。

With the publication of the American edition, retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer，s Stone, in 1998, Rowling’s books continued to make publishing history.  1998年，随 着美国版本的出现，这本书被重新命名为《哈利.波特与魔法石》，罗琳的书继续创造着出版界的历史。

Harry Potter climbed to the top of all the bestseller lists for children’s and adult books.  《哈利.波特》登上了儿童与成人书籍最佳销售榜的首位。

Indeed, the story of the boy wizard, his Cinder lad childhood, and his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry caught the imagination of readers of all ages.  确实，这个小巫师的故事，他灰姑娘一样的童年，和他在霍格华兹魔法学校的历险引发了各个年龄段读者丰富的想象力。

In Britain a separate edition of the first book appeared with a more “adult” dust jacket  在英国，出版商出版了一种更成人化封面的版本，

so that grown-ups reading it on trains and subways would not have to hide their copy behind a newspaper. 使得大人们在火车或者地铁里阅读此书时而不用把书藏在报纸后面。

What is the secret of Rowling’s success?  罗琳成功的秘诀是什么？

Many people think that the stories sell well because they are full of exciting action and they appeal to readers of all ages. 许多人认为《哈利.波特》 的畅销归功于引人入胜的情节，而且老少皆宜。

 But in an interview, Rowling said, “The books are really about the power of the imagination. ” 但在一次采访中，罗琳说：“这些故事讲的是想象的力量。”

Deep down, everyone wants to be like Harry.  其实在每个人心底，大家都想成为哈利。

Readers can identify with his courage to face danger and overcome problems. 他直面危险、克服困难的勇气，令读者产生了共鸣。

 And it was not Harry Potter who rescued Rowling, but exactly herself. 可以说成就罗琳的不是《哈利.波特》，而是罗琳自己。