Do Go On - 109 - J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter

Episode Date: November 22, 2017

This week we dip into the Golden Hat and discuss the rags to riches story of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling! We talk about her life pre-Potter and then how she went on to become one of the most successful British writers IN HISTORYYYYY.  Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Twitter: @DoGoOnPod Instagram: @DoGoOnPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/ Email us: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and I'm sitting in a hot room with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins.

With a hot Matt and a hot Jess. It's so hot. It's hot. It feels like only yesterday we were talking about how hot it is up here. And people love it when we do this. They love it so much. You talk about the temperature of a room. you'll never go in last week.

I hope you never fucking go in this room. Stay out of our room. I matter how hot it would be if we had every single listener in here. It's physically impossible, Dave. It's a small room, and there are hundreds of thousands of listeners. Sorry, you mispronounce the word billions. I beg your pardon.

I'm being humble. Hundreds of thousands of billions. Yes, thank you. Sorry, not as good as maths. At Matt. It's very hot in here. Also very good at English. So good at everything.

You're our little golden boy. All right. Sasqueam, Jess Perkins. It is your report. Your turn to do a topic? I didn't write a question. That's all right. I'll figure it out.

What are we, episode 109? I know, I never do. Hang on. I'll just figure one out now. Hang on. We've been doing this for two years. I know. Two years.

Yeah, but do you want to change me? You know, if you do, if you want to... Yeah, I do. I definitely do. But if you, while you're thinking of a question, love to say hello to Elliot. Ebony, Phoebe, Josh and Zoe, who I met up in Canberra, our nation's capital. A bunch of listeners came up and said hello after the show, which is really nice.

That is so awesome. And they definitely made me feel like we should go up there and do a lot of pod up there sometime maybe. I should talk to you guys about that off the air. Jess, have you thought of a question? Yes. Who is? Okay. One of the most successful.

British authors. Charles Dickens. Okay. Matt? It's not Charles Dickens. Okay. Roll-Dahl. No, we've done him.

Rolled-Dahl. We've done Roll-Dahl. Oscar Wild. No. More modern. Shakespeare. Is he an author of plays? Also done him?

More modern. J.K. Roller. Yeah. Okay. J.K. Rowling. That's amazing. So recently, you know, they've made that great mates group.

for podcasts in our world. Maybe we should plug that just in case people aren't aware. Okay, great. So basically, if you're not aware, on Facebook, Levens, Planet Broadcasting, fellow legend. Well, fellow, fellow planet broadcasting member slash... Dave just called himself a legend. But he also called us Legends. Ah, yeah, all right.

I'll take that. Well, two out of three of us are legends, and you make me legend by association. Anyway, you make me legendary. He's created a private Facebook group, which I say private, but it doesn't mean you have to click join to get in there. And it's for all the Planet Broadcasting mates, so all the shows you can chat about that are on our network. Yeah, I think it's called Planet Broadcasting Great Mates or something.

Yeah, it's really cool. It's great. Anyway, there's a few thousand people in there already, so get on it if not. Oh, right. Okay, I just remembered why we went on this weird tangent. It's because someone, people ask questions all the time there. It's my whole Facebook feed now. Yeah. People's posts. But anyway, one of them was, if you had to drop one of these franchises, what would it be?

Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Batman, Marvel Universe, Star Wars. And I'm like, oh, we've done a show on all of those apart from Harry Potter. Wow. That was this week. And here we are. That's crazy. It is crazy. And was Harry Potter the franchise that everyone voted to drop and therefore we shouldn't bother talking about?

People were saying Harry Potter a lot. I voted for Lord of the Rings. But I didn't, maybe I didn't actually vote because I don't want to offend anyone. Sure. Certainly not in that world. God. There's some strongly held opinions and very friendly people in there. That's true.

This is a golden hat suggestion and this is suggested by Rowan Epstein. Oh, sweet. So these are almost like the death throes of the golden hat because we revamped it to make it a different thing, a monthly live video amongst. a few other things of viruses and stuff. This is on Patreon. But we told the people that were in the Golden Hat, the nine people that were in there,

that they get to choose one final topic. Yeah. And so he has chosen to do, well, he's suggesting was J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter. Seek. So my focus will be mostly on J.K. Rowling and obviously like her writing Harry Potter, but I figured it would be,

firstly, it would take a very long time and also be quite spoilerful if I were to then explain the plot of all seven books. All right, quick spoiler warning. Harry Potter, a boy wizard. Oh my god, Matt. I haven't read it. I've got more to come. Actually, that was one of my questions. Have you... Has a pet owl called Hagrid. Have you... Have you... Have you guys read the books and slash seen the films?

I've seen the films. Not read the books? I've seen the books. Interesting. That doesn't answer the question. Dave. Have read the books and seen a few of the films. Alright, okay, cool. But... Yeah, I think the films ruined it for me because the film started coming out, and then when I went back to the books, I'd no longer use my imagination. I just imagine the actors. Right.

And I hated that. Yeah. I remember getting upset that Daniel Radcliffe had blue eyes. Harry Potter has green eyes. Oh, that is disappointing. That is. But in my mind, he is Harry Potter. Interesting.

But also, they were kids' books and they came out when I was quite an old man. Yeah, but I assume. That's no excuse. Okay. Also, they were kids' movies and they came out when I was an even older man and I still watched them. Yeah, true. I thought they got increasingly good. Would that be fair?

Yeah, I'd probably agree. Increasingly adult, maybe. I've heard that, I'm sure. Yeah, I think that's true. Remember when that guy had no nose? Oh, man, that was messed up. Who was that, Matt? I will never say his name.

It's Gerald. I think, is it? Gerald from a count. Gerald from a count. You said it. Fuck. What's wrong with you? I don't know.

It's hot in here. Jess will beep that name. Thank you, Jess, please. I will beep that. Okay, so, Joanne rolling. Spoilers. Hang on, her name is not J.K. It's Joanne.

Oh, no wonder she goes J.K. Why? You don't like Joanne? God, you've gone. J.K. is cooler, right? Yeah, I'm with you. I reckon. It's just cooler.

I want to go out on Olymp here. Here. With a K. Yeah. Also the name of the Jemariqui singer. Yeah, J. K. I think.

His name's J.K. Yeah, that's what everyone calls him. And he wears lots of hats and has lots of cars. I get him. He's my kind of guy. Yeah, he's my cosmic girl. Yeah, he's my little L. Okay, I've literally got two words into this report so far.

Well, let's talk a bit more about the back catalog of one Jumericlo. I don't want to do that. Okay. I did not research the back catalog of Jumericu. I could not possibly have known this tangent would happen. So you see the letters, JK, and you don't think of Jim Eriqua. Absolutely not. One of the greatest funk acts of the 1990s.

The cat in the hat. Oh, please stop. This is... Well, this is, I'm ready to be disappointed by this report. This report is a new low. Aren't you always ready to be disappointed when I and start? No, never. Okay, well, that's very sweet.

If any new listeners, if we've gotten any new listeners based on J.K. Rowling. Rolling. Or any listeners based on... on people that like J.Miriqui and have mistaken JK for JK. They've both definitely turned off now. And now we can begin. Great. So now... Now that all those losers have gone.

That was a real test. And you passed it, guys. Well done. Well done, you legends. Either that or you've dropped your iPod and you can't find it. We keep just playing on speaker. Yeah. Oh, fuck, turn it off! And you're at a funeral.

Oh, no. It's really embarrassing. Oh, this is awful. Sorry, Grandma. Yeah. R.P. Oh. Anyway, Joanne was born on the 31st of July in 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire. Gloucester? No, Gloucestershire, great. Sorry.

Fuck. But you interrupted to tell her that she'd set it right. She's 10 miles or 16 kilometres northeast of Bristol. Her parents were Peter James Rowling, who was a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer. Wow, that sounds cool. That's pretty cool. and Anne Rowling, who was a science technician. That sounds cool.

Also pretty cool. Her sister Diane was born at their family home when Joanne was 23 months old. Matt just flicked his phone off the table and called him at his foot. That was one of the coolest things you've ever done. You are so cool. You are so cool. Yeah.

Also, no. Can't deny it now. No feed on the table. Sorry, sir. I don't know why I said it's so hot. I'm not doing well. Yeah, not doing well. Her sister Diane is just shy of two years younger than her.

The family moved to a nearby village of Winterbourne when Rowling was four. As a child, she often wrote fantasy stories which she frequently read to her sister. Diane was like, please stop. Please stop. These stories are childish. When she was nine, they moved to church cottage in the village of Tutschil, Tutsil. Tutts Hill. That's a bit cute.

How would you say that, Matt? How would you mispronounce? Church college. Nice. It sounds beautiful. It does sound Tutsal. Cottage. But okay.

Church Cottage. That sounds like a made-up place, right? Where are you going? Like, that's them leaving someone they don't want to follow an old boyfriend or something. Oh, I'm just going to church cottage in Tussil, near Chips stove. So you just try it off there a little. Did I? Yeah.

Sorry, I've just got my pen out now if you want to give me that address again. Oh, no. Just church cottage. Okay, it's just on the, close to Wales. Okay, close to Wales. That should, oh, well, that should make it a lot easier. No, is it down. She attended secondary school at the Y Dean School and College,

where her mother worked in the science department. And Rowling said that her teenage years were quite unhappy. Her home life was complicated by her mother's illness. Her mom had multiple sclerosis, and a strange relationship with her father, with whom she is not on speaking terms still. So even as a teenager, they were not besties. When she was a young teenager, her great aunt gave her a copy of Huns and Rebels,

which is an autobiography by political activist Jessica Mitford, which describes her aristocratic childhood and the conflicts between her and her sisters, whose names were Unity and Diana. I mean, how do you name them Jessica, Diana and then Unity? Yeah. They don't go. That was some sort of a mushroom trip, I reckon that last one. Well, her sisters, Unity and Diana, were ardent supporters of Nazism.

And Jessica was a supporter of communism and eloped with her cousin to fight with the loyalists in the Spanish Civil War. Diana grew up to marry Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, and Unity befriended Hitler. What the fuck? Who praised her as an ideal of Aryan beauty. Wait, who were these people again? So when... J.K's a book about them. J.K. Rowling's been given a book.

Oh, okay. I missed a bit. I thought it were siblings or something. How old is JK, for starters? And what is going on here? This is an autobiography written by Jessica Mitford. I did hear you say that. This story makes Harry Potter seem very tame and believable.

I'm also just remembering how much J.K. Rowling's a legend. She's really cool, right? She's very cool. Yes. And so this writer, Jessica Mitford, became Rowling's heroine. She absolutely loved her. She read all her. She read all of her books.

In an interview in 2002, J.K. Rowling said, my most influential writer, without a doubt, is Jessica Mitford. When my great aunt gave me Huns and Rebels when I was 14, she instantly became my hero. She ran away from home to fight in the Spanish Civil War, taking with her a camera that she'd charged to her father's account. I wish I'd had the nerve to do something like that. I love the way she never grew some of her adolescent traits,

remaining true to her politics throughout her life. I think I've read everything that she wrote. I even called my daughter Jessica Rowling Aranti's after her. So she was a really big influence of J.K. Rowling, which is really nice. Also, the name's Jessica. So she must be a fucking stone-called fox. Any arguments, boys? I'm pretty keen on Unity.

Interesting. Well, Hitler said Unity was a real babe. Oh, God. Really panting myself into a corner here. He said she was the ideal of Aryan beauty. So, yeah, sounds like Unity was a real fox. Good call. Sounds like the name of like a gladiator from the old 90s TV show.

Let's hear it for unity. Yeah. In 1982, Rowling took the entrance exam for Oxford University, but she wasn't accepted, and instead she got into a BA in French and classics at the University of Exeter. Been an Exeter. Have you? That's in down in the southwest, I believe.

Was there a pub down there? Yeah, yeah. Exeter, I remember a big cathedral. Did you go into the cathedral? Did you just go to the pub? Devinshire. I went to, wow, look, I walked past the cathedral on the way to the pub. There we go.

I had a great night out in Exeterre. I bet you did. Were they playing NFL? American football? Yeah. Hockey? High hockey. I want to see a soccer game near there in YoVille just over the border.

YoVille. At home in Yoville playing Portsmouth. It was a preseason game. It was sick. I want to live in Yovil. Yoaville was rad. They wore green and white hoops, then still my favourite fourth division professional soccer team.

You have a team in every league in the whole world? Yes. It's amazing. I'm trying to. It's actually incredible. Fourth division. Who's your seventh division team? Seventh division.

That'll be the cockholes from oldzers. Oh, yeah. The improv's Jan's still strong. Gave him a low five for that one. Really should have said that tan you said before. That would have been very funny. You should just said, day. Day.

Anyway, Martin Sorrell, who is a French professor at the university, remembers a quietly competent student with a denim jacket and dark hair, who, in academic terms, gave the appearance of doing what was necessary. The Jess Perkins approach. That's how I passed university. To me, it sounds like she killed when needed. Oh. I will do anything.

anything necessary or pass by any means necessary. Yeah, okay, I didn't quite read that, but I think you're right. So that's not the... She's saying that as she's... Murdering. Sheiving her teacher in the back. I said if you didn't give me a past, Mr. Dickface. Mr. Dickface.

Which was a weird name, but I think she used it in... It was French. It's DeFarge. DeFarge. Come on, mate. Professor Defarge. Gide, Dickface. I get this every day, every year on day one.

Change your name then. Change your name. If your name was Dickface, you change it. Yeah, but it's Dickface, isn't it? Written down, it's Dickface. They never pronounce things. Why am I so mad at a fictional character? Defar.

I'm really mad at him for that. It's what JK does. He paints characters. He makes it you believe they're real. Like Hagrid the owl. Hagrid's not the owl. Defarish. Why is he a carrot?

I don't know. There's a lot of... It's a magic plant. You're right. Open your eyes, and my... Hey, I don't know if you're going to get across this, but at one point, there's it in the films, and I'm starting to think it might be Hagrid,

but he's like a half-giant, half-human. That's Hagrid. That's Hagrid. Okay, great. The Ows name is Headwig. Okay, great. I was going to say, I'll be confusing that an owl and a half-giant, half-human, both named Hagrid.

They're not. Okay. Well, great to disagree. No, no. That's correct. Okay, Jess. Anyway, so... And then they later in the movie,

showed what a giant looks like right which is huge correct like you'd step so where to believe that Hagrid's mom or dad was a human who fucked a giant who like he would fit his mother was a giant my god so how did so the dad must have crawled up inside the mum and jizzed no he used right how did it happen he used the cup and threw it inside he's a really he's good did he have a very good arm Like, have you thought about the mechanics of that? Has that ever been brought up before? I remember watching that going on. I've got so many questions.

Turkey baster. Right. But real big. A dragon turkey baster. He had to do a few cums. But then there was enough that she got a giant-sized turkey baster and insinimated herself. That's like a domestic cat impregnating a lion. Yeah.

It's like that. Any further questions? No, it all makes sense now. You're glad you brought this up? No. It's like a domestic cat impregnating a blue whale. I'm talking about J.K. rolling, and now you're talking about a man trying to fuck a giant. No, she talked about that.

Yeah. No, she didn't talk about that. And she should have. No. She implied it, didn't she? No, it's a children's series. Well, I mean, that's not appropriate, is it, JK? Why not?

You're very slippery. right now, Jess. Because all of the characters in the book would have come from two people who had fucked. Yes, but only... She didn't go into the origins of every character and their parents' sexual experience. Not at all. To how they were conceived. No.

That is very strange. They're long books, but they're not that long. I think that's lazy. What else did she leave out? That's lazy. You've got to paint a real backstory for me to believe the character exists. So you need to hear about the... I need to hear how they were conceived.

Oh. Yeah. Thank you. I hate this. I mean, they did it with other children's books. Remember Spot? Yeah, we all know where Spot came from. Where?

What happened to Spot? Doggy style. Seriously, you're not going to do a regret face after that. You don't regret that one at all. It's too hot to regret. I don't think that's a thing. Can I go on? Please, you go.

Fuck. So, she was a competent student. She recalls doing very little work, preferring to listen to the Smiths and read Dixie Dickens and Tolkien. All right, now she's talking my language. She cool. After a year of study in Paris, she graduated from uni in 1986 and moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International.

After working in Amnesty International in London, she and her then boyfriend decided to move to Manchester, where she worked at the Chamber of Commerce. In 1990, while she was on a four-hour delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry came. fully formed into her mind. And as soon as she got home that afternoon, she started writing. So that was in early 1990. In December of 1990, her mother Anne died after 10 years suffering from multiple sclerosis. Rowling was writing Harry Potter at the time

and had never told her mother about it. Her mother's death heavily affected Rowling's writing and she channeled her own feelings of loss by writing about Harry's feelings of loss in greater detail in the first book. I saw an interview with her and she was like, It was one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't, like, tell mum about the book that I was writing. Because, like, look what it went on to become.

Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. You think your mom would never, obviously, your parents want the best for you, but you would never in your wildest dreams. Imagine that you would become the wealthiest author on the planet. Yeah. She was seeing it as a secret shame almost. Maybe.

Or just like a little side project, just another little hobby. Like, I don't tell my parents about the podcast. Yeah, but that's because they listen. Because they listen. You don't have to. Don't have to. They're very supportive. They're great people.

Hey, John. Hey, Annie. They'll get a real kick out of that. Do they still listen? I don't know. Do they get through all that bullshit that we've just done? No, they listen. Sorry about the turkey baster.

Yeah, come on. Anyway, and them doing it is why I exist. Oh, let's talk about your origin story. I don't want to. I need to know. I don't know. To understand how you exist. I don't want to know.

Well, when are Johnny lovers? Oh, fuck off. You definitely brought that up. I know, but I was hoping it would end. Anyway, moving on, an advertisement in The Guardian led Rowling to move to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language.

She taught at night and began writing in the day while listening to Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. That's how I like to write. A bit of Tchaikovsky in the background, am I right? I love a good concert. Love it. I imagine that you read that, then put the music on and wrote the rest of the report to the music. Obviously.

Obviously, but me. After 18 months in Portugal, she met a Portuguese television journalist. His name was Georges Arontes in a bar, and they found that they shared an interest in Jane Austen. They married on 16th of October 1992, and their child, Jessica, named after Jessica Mitford, was born on the 27th of July, 1993, in Portugal. Wow. They work fast, right? So what did they meet? Married in October, had their daughter in July.

But when did they meet before the... I'm not sure. Sorry. I find an interest in Jane Austen is probably not enough. To marry and have a kid within weeks. Well, there's no aphrodisiac like Jane Austen. Oh, yeah. Oh, Mr. Darcy.

No need for a turkey booster. I'm choosing at a distance. Okay. High pressure jizz. Yeah. You know what I mean? No regret face for that one? It's too hot to regret, isn't it?

Too hot to regret. I get it now. Dave? I'm waiting for my lack of regret. Today's the day. The couple separated four months later in November of 1993. Ha! Told you that Jane Austen wasn't enough to base the entire relationship on.

And then the next month in December, rolling and her then infant daughter moved to Edinburgh to be near Rolling's sister Diane. And they had not very much with them, but she did have three chapters of what would become Harry Potter in her suitcase. So seven years after graduating from university, she saw herself as a failure. Her marriage had failed, she was jobless, she had a dependent child, but she described her failure as liberating and allowing her to focus on writing.

Although during this period she was diagnosed with clinical depression and contemplated suicide. So she's saying that it was very liberating, but also she was clinically depressed, which is... Sounds like those peaks and troughs. Yeah, and I suppose that's quite true. Her illness actually inspired the characters known as Dementors, which are soul-sucking creatures introduced in the third book. So she kind of based them off depression, which when you think about it, you're like, yeah.

That makes sense. That works. She signed up for welfare benefits, describing her economic status as being as poor as it's possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless. So things were pretty tight for her for a long time. Her husband turned up in Edinburgh, much to her horror, and she filed a restraining order against him.

and so he returned back to Portugal and then she filed for divorce the following August, which was 1994. She began a teacher training course in August of 1995 at the Morey House School of Education, which is at Edinburgh University, after completing her first novel while living on state benefits. She wrote in many cafes, especially Nicholson's Cafe, which was owned by her brother-in-law,

and the elephant house, whenever and wherever she could get Jessica to fall asleep. In a 2001 interview, she denied the rumour that she wrote in local cafes to escape from her unheated flat. People were like... Oh right, because I've heard that. Have you? Yeah, she was like, no, it had heating.

I thought it was like she couldn't afford the heating, so she had to go to a cafe. Obviously, that romanticised story a bit. I suppose, yeah, but she said the reasons that she wrote in cafe was that taking the baby out for a walk was the best way to get her to fall asleep. So she would do that, and then while the bubble... was sleeping, she would sit and write, which kind of works. That sounds like a stressful way to write a book.

Like bits at a time. Yeah. Not knocking out a solid six hours here, it's like, all right, 15 minutes, thought the baby's awake. Yeah, that... Yeah, I guess so. Take a while. But hey.

That explains why in the book, every third or fourth page is a crying baby. Because that did seem a little weird. It was weird that they adapted that into the film, too. Yeah, it was. Every few minutes. It would be a crying baby That's got to be true to the text You're right

You're right Fans would have been furious otherwise But where was the crying baby In 1995 Rolling finished her manuscript For Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone On an old manual typewriter So this whole time she'd been on a typewriter

Or just the last bit I don't know I suppose I thought she was writing Like in notebooks and stuff But I assume you'd be sort of like Writing down notes and then transcribing that into.

She wrote it on a typewriter. This is sort of the early to mid-90s. Computers were pretty... That's 95, yeah. Yeah. I think there wouldn't have been laptops then, I don't think. They'd be big ones, but she's also very poor. Yeah, I don't...

They would have cost thousands. Yeah, they were very expensive and not all that accessible. So... And the Fulham-based Christopher Little literary agents agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a publisher. The book was submitted to how many publications, publishing houses, do you want to guess? I love it to be one and just no one has regrets.

They all rejected it, so there's more than one. It's something in the 20s, maybe 27. Lower. 12. Correct. Yes. How did you get 12? Dirty dozen, baby.

How did you do that? Did you look at my laptop? Matt, did you look at my typewriter? I can hardly see through the delirium, let alone. Why? Why are you bit delirium? It's very hot in here. Have we mentioned that?

Sorry. I was going to say, I'm cool as a cucumber, but I started. I'm cool. Oh no, I'm so hot, I can't speak. I'm melting. So, yeah, they submitted it to 12 publishing houses, and all of them rejected the manuscript. A year later, she was finally given the green light

and a 1500 pound advance by editor Barry Cunningham from Bloomsbury. God, I hope he gets rich. which is a publishing house the decision to publish to publish Rowling's book owes much to Alice Newton the eight-year-old daughter

of Bloomsbury's chairman who was given the first chapter to review by her father and immediately demanded the next Oh that's true That is good So they're like We're on to the winner

Remind me that scene of the Simpsons with Kent Brockman and his daughter She's like, that's boring Do a story about my darling The new Malibus Stacy thing And he goes Hmm yeah Well you were right about the Berlin Wall

and although Bloom's agreed to publish the book Cunningham said that he advised Rowling to get a day job since she had very little chance of making money in children's books he was like yeah we'll publish it but hey just a little FYI I'd probably get a day job okay

which is pretty funny now soon after in 1997 Rowling received an 8,000 pound grant from the Scottish Arts Council to enable her to continue writing so to finish off this First one? No, to continue, I think, with the rest of the series, because they'd already agreed to publish,

the publisher had already agreed to publish the first book. In June of 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher Stone with an initial print run of 1,000 copies, 500 of which were distributed to libraries. Oh, most of the... Imagine a first edition of that. Yeah.

How much do you think that might be worth now? Oh, 10,000? 10,000 pounds? More. Really 20. Between 16 and 25,000. Those copies. Poons.

Poons. So that's what, like double? My bloomin' art. That's crazy. Which I believe is a phrase in England. Might not be. Blumen art. I reckon it probably is.

So it was published in June and five months later the book won its first award, which was a Nestle Smarty's book prize. That sounds like a colouring competition. It does, doesn't it? She submitted in every comp available. They were like, well, we assume this was written by a seven-year-old, so congratulations. And it's very good. And it's all between the lines.

Can't believe you kept the words in between the lines for 400 pages. Very impressive. The following February of the novel won the British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year and later the Children's Book Award. In early 1998, an auction was held in the United States for the rights to publish the novel and was won by Scholastic for US $105,000. Getting better. So she's starting to make some kish.

Things are looking up. Cash money. I really hope it works out for her. She said that she nearly died when she heard the news that Scholastic. Oh, fucking how. Imagine that. Yeah. It's such a rags to riches, you know? And then she almost died when the money was starting to come in.

Fucking fuck. They shipped it in by the truckload and she was nearly buried alive. Jesus. It's weird that she asked. to be paid in cash. It's harrowing. In coins. It was really silly.

Not all at once! I think it's backing up. Beep! No! Oh, this business is so bitter sweet, she chokes on coins. I love money. So in October of 1998, Scholastic Published Philosopher Stone with the US title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

I don't know. I don't know why there was that much change, but she now regrets that change and would have fought a bit harder for it not to be changed. So there are movies and everything that are called The Sorcerer Stone? Oh, I'm actually not sure. It was philosophers here. Yeah, definitely. I've never heard of Sorcerer Stone.

I just remember that, like, suddenly 30 was 13 going on 30 in America. I had a... 13 going on 30. All right. Is it, is it like... I don't want to be rude, but do things need to be spelled out a bit more to Americans? What's a philosopher? Sorser, I love it.

Well, no, that doesn't, yeah, because sorcerer, like, would be a more obscure occupation, I would have thought. Yeah, philosopher. So maybe they need it a bit more obscure in America. Harry Potter and the Magic Land of Magic. This sounds fantastic. Harry goes to a school. Slow down. Oh no.

You've lost me again. So many of our lists are American, and we love you all so much. Guys, you're the good ones. Your big dummies. You know what philosophers are, not like the rest of your country. Maybe you'd be like Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone reading that, you're not thinking magic. Whereas Sorcerer Stone, you're thinking, that's a magic. That says magic.

Magic. I reckon that would have been what someone said in a meeting one time. They probably had... Philosopher Stone doesn't say magic. sorcerer stone that says magic then call it Sparkle fingers magic hands yeah

so they probably would have done like some sort of focus group or something on it yeah yeah focus focus group and at the end they were like why don't you just call it the hocus focus group and they nearly did Harry Potter on the hocus focus group I reckon it would have been a hit

Focus Pocus would have been better sorry about that everybody you know you make those split second decisions and you know you live the rest of the podcast with regret. Focus, pocus, focus. So, first book's out. It's out in America.

Oh, my God. Its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was first published in July of 1998, and again, rolling won the Smarties Prize. Two years running, baby. Does that ever been done? Oh, she goes one further. Can I just ask, what do they call it in America?

M&Ms. The Chamber of Eminemes. Oh, the book. Still the Chamber of Secret. They called it the champ. They didn't call it like the cave of whispers. The cave of sh-sh, shush. Shusha.

The cave of shushes. I think Chamber of Secrets is pretty idiot proof. I don't know. In America, chamber means part of your gun. Ah. There's lots of secrets in there. Harry Potter and the Gun Chamber of Secrets. Shhh.

Yeah, just someone whispering into their gun. shushing the smoke away Ah good on you I love guns too I'm done America Poo Pio In December of 99 The third novel

Harry Potter on the Prisoner of Ascaband Won the Smarties prize What three in a row That made her the first person To win the award Three times running This is so good She later withdrew

The fourth Harry Potter novel From contention To allow other books A fair chance To allow other six year olds To win the colour and competition Yeah good on you JK That is so good

So in January of 2000 That is extremely nice But also extremely arrogant at the same time Because you just assume you're going to win Oh yeah this is definitely going to win So I withdraw that to give you a shot Well I just think that's cheering the love Sharing the love

You know Okay well I'm going to withdraw this podcast From the upcoming Academy Award nominations No Dave Because I'd like to give everyone else a shot David no We need that publicity You want that?

Yes. We need that golden Academy Award. We need it. Okay. I'm sick of seeing all of Auntie Donner's awards in their office. They've got so many. They've got so many awards. All these plaques.

They don't have any Oscars. Not a single Oscar. They do have. It's embarrassing, actually. A signed framed photo of me in their office. Oh. Which I put there. We don't have that in our office.

Yeah. Or we don't have an office. I don't have an office. I believe it used to be called the E-GOT. Now it's the G-GOT. Because you get the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar, the Tony. You get the signed photo of Jess. Something you've got.

You've got a five. So the J is pronounced G. Yep. Matt, it's show business. Don't question it. Yeah, come on, man. Sorry, I felt dumb. It was going to question.

Show business. Anyway, the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released simultaneously in the UK and the US. Harry Potter and the big cup of flame. The flamy cup. Flammy cup. In brackets, do not drink from the cup. It was really.

released in the UK and the US on the 8th of July and broke sales records in both countries. 372,775 copies of the book were sold in the first day in the UK. That is so many. Almost equaling the number of Ascovan sold during its first year, which was the book before it. So it's building. And in the US, the book sold 3 million copies in its first 48 hours. 3 million? So that was in the times where people were lining up.

I vaguely remember that. It was on the news people were lining up for the book. shop to open. It's such a, I always love the line up to get something that you could walk in and get the next day. It's crazy, isn't it?

Yeah. But with a book or something that makes sense because you don't want spoilers or something. But what about a phone? You don't get phone spoilers. Yeah, true. It's ridiculous.

You're fucking live. All you get a bugs get to get fixed in the early months. Exactly. They work out, the first people get their credit card details stolen and then the second people don't. And I want that experience.

I would love to have my credit card details stolen. It's putting it out there. Alright, Dave, give us your credit card number. I know a pretty easy way for that to happen. Well, they want to make them work for it. Yeah, great. Ralling was named author of the year in the 2000

British Book Awards, author of the year. How many smarties did she win? A lifetime is a cheap. A lifetime amount. So does that, please stop submitting your books. Yeah. Just have all the smarties you want, which are like, Eminem for anyone out there.

Yeah, but I don't like smarties. So all the smarties you want would be like one of those little tiny packets. and I'd probably give it to a friend. That for you, that's a lifetime support. So either of you like Smarties? Yeah. Okay, then I'd give them to you. I used to them when they're thinner.

But I think Eminem's a better. Eminem's a better. More chocolate in them. I'm definitely on Team M&M. Yeah. Nah, Smarties can fuck off. But I'll eat them. Nah, I won't.

If you said, do you want a Smarty? I'll get... Nah. That's interesting. Yeah. Skittles on the other hand. Holy shit. Get them in me.

Get them in me. Fruit flavor. My mum won't let me have them still. Why? I get real hyped. Oh, that's awesome. Let's get her a pack. Orange, lemon, lime, mix them in.

You create a new flavor. What's it called? That was an old Skittles ad where you go, you can make up any flavors, and they're putting different varieties in their mouth. That is fun. Orange lemon lime, they called it, like they made portmanteaus of the words.

They didn't even give it a new name. I'd have called mine Greg. Gary, who am I kidding? Yeah, I would have been Gary. Taste the Greg. I don't want to taste the Greg. the Greg. Taste Greg.

Get out of my mouth, Craig. Ew. Why is Greg in there? Stop it, Greg. I'm just imagining a guy with his hand in your mouth. Get out of my mouth, Greg. Taste my green finger. Oh, Craig.

Oh, God. I mean, it does taste nice. I call the citrusy goodness, but... Still, get that checked. Anyway, a weight of three years occurred between the release of Gobblet of Fire and the fifth Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

People must have... Three years Not known what to do You've lined up on day one Read it in a day And now you have to fucking wait three years That's a long time But Dave do you want to give it an American name

Order of the Phoenix Order of the Flamebird No just Flamebird It would have been Chicken and chips please Order Yep I get it Chicken is a different kind of bird

What about a three chips in there Is a bonus Group of the Fire Chicken Yeah Group of the Fire Chicken We all belong to the fire chicken. We are the fire chicken. It's a cult.

This gap led to press speculation that Rowling had developed writer's block. Speculation that she denied. She said that writing the book was a chore, that it could have been shorter, and that she ran out of time and energy as she tried to finish it. Oh, so she was not happy with that one? Yeah, maybe, yeah. Is that same, do you have a general idea of how they were received overall?

Like, is there a one that's not? is the classic or anything like that? For me, number five, the start is very boring. Okay. It is. It's just a lot of them hiding out in a thing, and they just, like, it's just three, 250 or 300 pages of not, not much happening.

Which one was your favorite? Number three. Me too! That's really good, the prisoner of Azkaband. Yes, Sirius Black. Yeah, he's really cool. He's so cool. I like that movie, I think.

And Lupin? I fucking love Lupin. Yeah, the Wolfman? Yes. Great. Yeah, because Loop. Anyway. But also it's got Jobby in as well.

Is that that one? Jobby. Jorby. We jobber. Dobby. We Jolby. I was about to correct you to goby and I thought I was not being funny. Dobby.

You mean goby? I was going to say that. Gobby. No. Gobby? Dobby. Dobby. Yeah, that was heartbreaking.

Spoilers. Potentially. That was number five. Oh, that was five. Oh. But he came about... That might have been six. I know, I find him irritating.

In the films especially, just sort of want to kick him into it like a cave and seal the door. That's my thoughts on Dobby. That is going to have some unpopular... Do you like him? Yes, people love Dobby. I thought he was the Jarja Binks of Harry Potter. Really?

I'm so sorry. I'm so Dobby. So topy. Anyone who feels offended, I will personally give a copy to... Oh my God. David, stop talking. That is an over-promise. I'm going to keep going.

The sixth book, which is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Dave. Harry Potter and my dead shit brother. It was released in July of 2005. It too broke all sales records. It sold 9 million copies in its first 24 hours. In 2006... Sorry, sorry, I zoned down. any of the number?

9 million in the first 24 hours. That's fucked up. Harry Potter and the anemic vice president. Half blood. Prince, you went to vice president. Because he's not quite the king. Yeah.

I get it. I follow your logic there. Good job. So it was year by year for the first four, then a three year gap? Yep. Yeah, so that makes sense of people be like, what the fuck's going on? And also, they start getting way thicker too.

Right. They're huge. But the first three are quite. I wonder if she considered just splitting them up then in the later ones. They would have just gone forever. Yeah. Like that series would have been like 10 books long. And her publisher would have been like, that is awesome.

Yeah. Yeah. And people would have lapped it up for sure. And what? Have the movies started by this stage? When did the movie? Because there were still books coming out while movies started. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. So the first movie came out in 2001. I'll talk about the movies in a sec as well. And what and when, so where were the books out in 2001? Good question. I was just wondering if that three-year gap she was spending any time thinking about the movie, like getting that developed or anything as well. By the time the first movie came out, I think the first four books were done.

Right. Yeah, right. And then there was that gap. So that totally makes sense. She was probably thinking about the movie a bit. Maybe. I can't speculate on what she was thinking at the time, to be honest. It is a very good point.

But I also can't prove you wrong. So yes. So definitely I'm right. Let's make the assumption that you're right. I like that rule. The title of the seventh and final Harry Potter book was announced on the 21st of December, 2006, as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Scary forest.

Harry Potter and the Scary forest. Ooh. So scary. Oh, no. That's good. It's a hallows is like a forest. What's that in reference to it? Well, I only remember, the only other place to remember it is that movie Shallow Hallows.

No, that's not right. Shallow Hell? Jack Blackfield? No, what, no, what do I think of the one with Johnny Depp in it? Which is not, that's the one where he's got a headless horseman, and that's a Hallows? Johnny Depp and the Headless Horseman? The Deathly Hallows. Is there a movie called The Deathly Hallows?

Yeah, the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hellos. We're back to where we started on. To Hallow is to make Holy or Sacred. I like Scary Forest. I'm just going to stick with that. Scary Forest is great. And in the context it works. Americans will love it.

Trust me. I'm going to re-release all the books. We won't tell them that they're not new books, and I still think we'll sell a few millions before they catch on. This is a fun little fact. In February of 2007, it was reported that Rowling wrote on a bust in her hotel room at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, that she had finished the seventh book in that room on the 11th of January 2007.

Wow. She wrote that on a bus. She wrote it on a bust in the hotel room. That's kind of cool. Like, J.K. Rowling finished her book here. That's very good. cool. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hellas was released on the 21st of July and broke its predecessor's

records as the fastest selling book of all time. That's because it's the final one and people wanted to find out what happened before anyone. Exactly. I remember my girlfriend at the time was one of those people that lined up to get it. You dumped her shortly after. I went out that night to see a band play and she was like, I can't come. I've got to finish this.

She read it in one day? Yeah, and I judged her for that. It was a big book. Yeah. People really set aside some time. Yeah, I think, I don't know if I love or hate that behaviour. I can't, I'm not quite sure. Well, I feel like you'd do it for something else.

If not a Harry Potter series, maybe you would do it for something else. Just, well, with the final Poirot episode, that was out for many months before I watched it, because I didn't want it to be over. Oh, that's so cute. I want to just savor it. I bet you did. Oh, yeah, it's called Curtain and it is a dramatic finale, can I just say. Don't give anything away, yeah.

Remember last time you got crucified for... I bet they bought some Curts. I bet the curtains did it. Is that it, Dave? I can't confess. Oh my God, you've got it. This ruined everything. The curtains did it.

So yeah, the book sold 11 million copies on its first day of release in the United Kingdom and the United States. The book's last chapter was one of the earliest things she wrote in the entire series. So she knew how it was going to end from the beginning. That's very cool. So a lot of the other stuff in the middle, she maybe sort of worked out as she went. but she had a pretty good idea of where it was going. Yeah. For quite a while, the owl's name was Hagrid.

Yeah. Quite sometime. But by the end, you knew it wasn't going to be called Hagrid. Yeah. Because it was going to be confusing because the big guy was also named that. Do you remember the final chapter? It was the flash forward. Yes, it's when, I don't know, are we allowed to say this?

Spoilers. Yeah, I guess. It's been out for 10 years. Spoilers. Yeah, true. If you don't want to know this, flip forward a couple of minutes. It's when Harry and his little gang are taking their, kids to the station to drop them up to Hogwarts for the first time.

So it's sort of like, I think it's 10 or something years later. So it's like the next generation. No, it must be much longer than 10 years later. They call it Harry Potter the next generation. Wow. Next gen. Degrassi Junior High. Wow.

Do you reckon she'll ever do that, cash in and? What? Write the next. Write more. I don't know. I think she's kind of said no. She's done with it. She'll die on someone else or I guess.

Maybe. What about? Half a lead to kill a mockingbird. Yeah. Someone sort of probably, possibly forced her to publish something just before she died. Yeah, that's for. Something apparently a lot less good.

I started to read it, got mad at something that happened in the plot and stopped reading. I was on a plane sitting next to David Quirk and I read something that I didn't want to read and I went, oh! And he went, what's wrong? I said, nothing. And I closed it. It was on my iPad. I closed it. I just sat there grumpy.

You closed your iPad? I closed my iPad. iPad. I folded it in half. I broke my iPad. That's why David Quirk great comedian was asking you what was wrong. Yeah, because I snapped an iPad. Nothing, David. Leave me alone.

Anyway. So 10 years has been since the last one. Wow. Amazing. Harry Potter is now a global brand worth an estimated 15 billion US dollars in the last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest selling books in history. The series,

totaling 4,195 pages, has been translated in whole or in part into 65 languages. My uncle has a copy of the first one in Latin. Did your uncle speak or read Latin? He was studying Latin at the time. Wow. Did he get anywhere with the studies? Do you reckon he could have a crack at reading and understanding it?

Well, the problem, yes. I'm just going to say, yes. Incredible. I'm so impressed. Yeah, and you're right to be. In October of 1998, Warner Brothers purchased the film's rights to the first two novels for a seven-figure sum. That's in the million. Million plus.

So the movies were pretty, I've got like a list here of sort of when they came out, and they were fairly consecutive. So like 2001, the first one, and 2002, the second one, both directed by Chris Columbus. Then there's a couple of years, 2004 for the next one, and that was directed by Alfonso Curran. Iran. Great name. I don't know anyone. The next year in 2005 for the fifth, fourth book, that was by Mike Newell. And then the last four movies were all directed by David Yates, and they came out in 2007, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011.

So they were sort of like... Yates-e. Fairly close and just, like, banged them out. But that's 10 years that all of the cast and everything were working together. Wow. Yeah, right. Really consistently. So those kids literally grew up together.

That's crazy. It is, 10 years, wow. That's such a long time. I guess I never really thought about it quite like that. And I don't think there would have been that much of a break between filming. You know, you'd sort of have a bit of a few months off and then you'd be back to it, you know? A weird way to grow up. Yeah.

They seem to have all... Yeah, but none of them seem crazy, do they? No. They don't seem weird. Like a lot of child actors turn out to be. Yeah, I think one of them did turn out to be hot. Harold Hoggbottom. Ron Weasley.

Neville Longbottom is who you're talking about? Yes, he did have to... He had to pretend to be ugly. Oh my God, he's a babe. Not there's anything wrong with being ugly. I'm certainly one of those people. Hey. Oh no, and I'm not...

Hey. I'm just saying I'm allowed to. If you want me to tell you you're good-looking, I will. I will look you in the eye and I will lie to make you feel good. I don't want that. I don't want to feel good. He's fishing. He wants us to tell him he's beautiful.

Well, got me hook, line and sinker. You are a beautiful man. You are the most of my most. beautiful man in that corner of the room. Oh, Jess. Good. Very, very good. Very well stepped around there.

Thank you. I wouldn't want to lie to him and say it's the best looking man in the room. That's for sure. That's for sure. I just like having a win by default. Like, I'm the best looking woman in the room at the moment. Can't argue with that? Can I argue?

You can't. So that's fun. I won't argue with that. Thank you. I choose not to argue with that. Very good. So Warner Brothers took considerable notice of Rowling's desires and thoughts when drafting her contract.

one of her principal's stipulations was that the film's be shot in Britain with an all-British cast which has been generally adhered to there's a few sneaky Americans in there Who? Get them out? I don't know I'm trying to think of the cast

and I think they are mostly British. Oh there? Who else is there? Was an American owl playing Hagrid? Yeah, that was it, yep. An American owl played the giant so yeah, you're right. She also demanded

that Coca-Cola, who was the there was a big race to tie their products to the film series so there's all these different big brands who wanted to be I suppose sponsors and the official soft drink of Harry Potter Exactly yeah so drink what Harry drinks Coca Cola Coca Cola won that but she insisted that they donate 18 million dollars to the American charity reading is fundamental

as well as several community charity programs So she's like yep you can be part of Harry Potter I suppose but you have to make this huge donation. Wow. It's commendable. Which is pretty cool. The first four films, as well as the sixth, seventh and eight, so only the fifth one was missed out,

was scripted by Steve Kloves. Rolling assisted him... Clovee. Closie. She assisted him with the writing process, ensuring that all of his scripts didn't contradict future books in the series. So he's kind of writing for what has already been published,

but she's making sure they don't allude to anything. So she had to keep whispering, just don't kill Harry He was like, oh Go on get the rubber out for the razor out for that one That was going to be the big finish Kill him over the end of the fifth one Rolling actually told Alan Rickman

who played Severus Snape And Robbie Coltrane who played Hagrid Not the owl, the other Hagrid Certain secrets about It's confusing isn't it She actually told them certain secrets About their characters Before they were revealed in the books

So they could sort of have an idea of what they were playing So that's kind of cool What kind of secrets is she telling me? Snape A big Snape twist. She told him that ahead of time. I remember hearing that. Maybe in the research of my

Snape episode. Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. So we have a whole episode devoted to the life in times of Ellen Rickman. Alan Rickman. Oh, no. Lost it?

Potter. No. Not bad. Protter. Porter. Oh, there it is. Potter. No.

Mr. Potter. Mr. Potter. It's not terrible. It's pretty good. It's hard. I love it. Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter, asked her if Harry died at any point in the series.

Rolling answered him by saying, You have a death scene, thereby not explicitly answering the question. Because Harry does kind of die. His follow-up question, Does Harry Potter have sex at all during these books? You have a sex scene. Oh.

You're in the bed, one over in the dorm. It's brutal. Yeah, it is. Super awkward. He's lying there by Ron's getting it on. Just like fingers in his ears. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la

And will it stop. Apparently director Stephen Spielberg was approached to direct the first film But he dropped out The press had repeatedly claimed that Rowling played a role in his departure But she stated that she had no say in who directed the films And would not have vetoed Spielberg Because he would have done a fucking great job Because he still been fucking spielberg

Stilber Stephen spilber He's still been fucking stupid stilber Did they fire him because he was rucked up drunk to the set? Yeah. I'm Stephen, fucking Spielberg. Do you think he looks himself in the mirror in the morning? He goes, you're Stephen fucking Spielberg. It would be a shock when you wake up or again.

Can you imagine me introduced him in somebody who's like, this is my friend Steve? It's just be Steve. Spilsie. Spilsie. Rolling's first choice for the director had been Monty Python member Terry Gilliam, but Warner Brothers wanted a family-friendly film, and they chose Chris Columbus. Like he's going to just add like a flying dick or something in the background of the cartoon. Rolling had gained some creative control of the films,

reviewing all the scripts as well as acting as a producer on the final two-part installment Deathly Hallows. Now just a little bit to follow up on her post-potter life, if I may. Yes, what are she doing? She's just pottering about? Oh, David, stop it. Regret that, you son of a bitch. It's too hot. It's too hot to regret. God, what a carefree world we live in now.

It's great. It's great. It's great. It's hot. Like, you just have no standards. I don't give it shit. Don't edit this, Jess. Leave it all in.

It's all gold. Hot, hot gold. Meltred gold. In 2004, Forbes named Rolling as the first person to become a US dollar billionaire by writing books, the second richest female entertainer and the 1,0602nd richest person in the world. Open number one? Opener one Oprah number one

Oprah number one Is what you're saying Am I correct Yeah I forgot to put a question mark at the end But also It was just running into one word Open number one

Like what's that Maddie You're hot You'd be hot A little bit I know Cool it down with some queam She actually disputed the calculation And said she had plenty of money

But was not a billionaire I love her. The 2016 Sunday Times Rich list estimated Rowling's fortune at 600 million, ranking her as the joint 197th richest person in the UK. But back in 2012, Forbes removed Rolling from the Rich List, claiming that her $160 million in charitable donations and the high tax rate in the UK meant she was no longer a billionaire.

That is so embarrassing. That's right. She gave away too much money to charity so that she was no longer a billionaire. And Forbes criticized her for it. What a dumb bitch. You idiot. Criticise her or just took her off the list?

No, they wouldn't have criticised. Giving away millions of dollars. Look at this idiot. She was a billionaire, but she's not anymore because she helped people that aren't billionaires. I bet other people around the Forbes office would have been... Or the billionaires around Forbes office. Yeah. Making hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Yeah. You don't, there's millions and billions in magazines as we all know. They're taking off. On December 26 in 2001, Boxing Day, she married Neil Murray, who's a Scottish doctor. Mother. In a private ceremony at her home. They had two more children, David Gordon Rowling Murray and Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray. In 2012, it was announced that Rowling was set to publish the new book, targeted at adults.

In a press release, Rowling said that her new book would be quite different from Harry Potter. So that was in the February. In April, Little Brown and Company announced that the book was titled The Casual Vacancy and would be released in September of that year. In its first three weeks of release, the Casual Vacancy sold over one million copies worldwide. I've never heard of it.

I haven't seen that one? No. Is that a movie as well? No. Oh, sorry, you haven't seen the cover. I think they've made a series out of it, though. It's publicized. Or making, made.

Yeah, right. But yeah, it was quite a big deal because it was J.K. Rowling again. I haven't read it. I haven't read it. But I think I've heard good things. Yeah. I think I have. My mum said it was good.

Oh, there you go. Dave's mom. She's a librarian, children's librarian, so she loves Harry Potter. Could you read title it, please, Dave. The casual vacancy. Do not bother reading this if you're expecting Harry Potter. In 2007 during the Edinburgh Book Festival, author Ian Rankin claimed that his wife spotted Rowling scribbling away at a detective novel in a cafe.

He later retracted the story claiming he was joking, but the rumour really persisted with a report in 2012 in The Guardian speculating that Rowling's next book would be a crime novel. How can you tell a genre from the way someone's scribbling. Exactly, exactly. He's like, I'm kidding. Relax. In April of 2013, Unrelated, Little Brown published The Cuckoo's Calling, the debut novel of an author called Robert Gale Brath, whom the publisher described as a former plainclothes Royal Military Police,

investigator who had left in 2003 to work in the civilian security industry. The novel, A Detective Story, in which a private investigator, unravels the supposed suicide of a supermodel, sold 1,500 copies in hardback, which later reports actually stated that this number is a number of copies that were printed in the first run, while the sales was actually about 500. So it only sold about 500 copies. And received a claim from other crime writers and critics, a publisher weekly review called the book a stellar debut

while the library journal's mystery section pronounced the novel the debut of the month so they're like this new writer is great fantastic debut but didn't convert into sales and how many Nestle Smarties award That's a good point Not that many

Adult Smarty was The Children India Knight who was a novelist and columnist for the Sunday Times tweeted on the 9th of July 2013 that she'd been reading the Cookoo's calling and thought it was good for a debut novel In response a tweeter called

Jude Kale Caligari said that the author was Rowling. Knight queried this but got no further reply. So then she gets Richard Brooks, who's arts editor of the Sunday Times, who begins his own investigation. After discovering that Rowling and Gailbrath had the same agent and editor,

he sent the books for linguistics analysis, which found similarities and subsequently contacted Rowling's agent who confirmed it was Rowling's pseudonym. Ah. So if you're going to have the whole story, then why end up just admitting it straight away? Yeah, I know. But within days of it being revealed that she was the author,

sales of the book rose by 4,000%. Okay, I think that's possibly part of the reason. They went, all right, we have lost a lot of money on this book, JK. Possibly you could admit that it's you. Yeah. Yeah. She wanted to see, well, and maybe she wanted to find out what people thought. Yeah, that's right.

I think that that could be a big part of it because you get an honest review. Yeah. People saying, this is great. This is a great crime book. Exactly. That's what you want to write. And that's what happened. And they had to print another 140,000 copies to meet the demand.

Bullshed, I reckon she had them in the back shed, and she was looking at him going, this is too many. She said she really enjoyed working under a pseudonym on the website, her website for Robert Gale Brath. She explained that she took the name from one of her personal heroes, Robert Kennedy, and a childhood fantasy name she had invented for herself, Ella Galeigh, Galebrath. Gailbrath.

Soon after the revelation, Brooks pondered whether Jude Caligari could have been rolling as part of a wider speculation that the entire affair had been a publicity stunt. Some also noted that many of the writers who had initially praised the book were within her circle of acquaintances. But all of those people said, we didn't know.

Right. That's interesting. It's funny that they're saying that the tweet came from JK. It's like, why not from someone else at the publishing house? Yeah. Her agent.

Like literally anyone. Anyone that has a stake in the book? As it turns out, Judith or Jude Caligari, was the best friend of the wife of Chris Gossage, who was a partner within Russell's solicitors, who was Rowling's legal representative. So somebody went home to his wife, said, oh, she was in your book,

and then she told her best friend who then fucking tweeted it. Don't tell Jude anything. But do you think J.K. was it, so she wasn't in on that? Oh, she wasn't in on it. They ended up like, they... Blue slips Jude. She was mad at her legal representative, and they had to apologize and make, like, a donation to charity.

To Coca-Cola. To Coca-Cola. All evens up. So a few other things that she's done. She was a single parent for a long time to her daughter, Jessica, and she's now president of the charity Gingerbread, which is originally one-parent families, having become their first ambassador in 2000, she's now the president.

In 2005, Rolling and MEP Emma Nicholson founded the Children's High Level Group, which is now called Lumos. To further support the group, Rolling auctioned one of seven handwritten and illustrated copies of The Tales of Beatle and the Bard, a series of fairy tales referred to in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The book was purchased for £1.95 million by an online bookseller. What the hell? It was bought by Amazon, becoming the most expensive,

book ever sold at auction. That's fantastic. That's ridiculous. Great for charity, but that's an extreme amount of money. Basically a donation and a bit of publicity for Amazon, I guess. Yeah. Here's one thing I like as well. Rolling has contributed money in support for research and treatment of multiple sclerosis

because her mother obviously suffered for a long time before her death. The big MS thing over here is the readathon, probably internationally. Yeah. So when I was a kid, MS readathons were big time. And in 2006, she contributed a substantial sum towards the creation of the new centre for regenerative medicine at Edinburgh University, which was later named the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology

Clinic after her mum, which is really nice. And to finish up, I have a couple of fun facts. Before we finish, there's, the only other books that I knew, I didn't know about all these at the ones which I found really cool. But did I not remember recently there was something about a suitcase of unknown creatures or something? Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them? Yes.

Is that her? No. Literally about to talk about it. See, correct. Yeah. So, in September of 2013, Warner Brothers announced an expanded creative partnership with Rowling based on a planned series of films

for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. So the first film, which was scripted by Rowling, was released in November of 2016, so last year, and set roughly 70 years before the event of the main Harry Potter series. And there's going to be a series. be another like, the series is going to consist of five films. There's another four films. One's coming out next year.

How did it go? I think pretty well. I haven't seen it. But I think it's, I think it did well. Oh. It just seemed like it wasn't a, it wasn't a phenomena. Yeah, I think the Harry Potter hype has sort of calmed down a bit by now. Right.

Oh, people still line up to, to, uh, when she released their play, the text. Yeah, it's true. People lined up to buy it. The cursed child. Is that the one? Yeah. Although she writes under the pen name J.K. Rowling, her name before her remarriage was just Joanne Rowling.

She doesn't have a middle name. But anticipating that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, her publishers asked her that she used two initials rather than her full name. And she had no middle name, so she chose Kay for Kathleen from her grandmother. So yeah, that's my report on J.K. Rowling. Great stuff, Jessica Perkins. Thank you, David Warnackie. I've just looked up fantastic

beast and where to find them it grossed $800 million so it did quite well That's cute isn't it That is a cute amount But that would be nothing on the others But still very good Nothing on us

We're making easily that Per episode 800 million They would like to contribute to our $800 billion Fund head over to patreon com slash do go on And we would now like to thank everyone

That supports the show through Patreon because it actually keeps this little pod ticking along and we'd like to specifically thank some people by name that contribute to our Patreon. Matt, would you like to thank a couple of people before you wrap this up? I would. I'd love to thank everyone, to be honest, but if we're going to get, if you want me to drill down even more specifically than that,

I'd love to thank everyone. And Dave's going to give them a Harry Potter title for Americans. Oh, great. Okay. Perfect. All right. That's awesome. I think from memory, this is the first Lebanon listener, Patreon that I've thanked.

Rani Tabri. In Lebanon. Lebanon. Isn't that cool? So, Rani Tabri and... The Magic Cat. Wow. Often confused with the sequel, The Magic Hat.

Rani Tabri and the Magic Hat. Yeah, so there's the Magic Cat. Was it just the two or was there a trilogy there? There's a planned trilogy. Okay. But they haven't got there yet. Do you know, any sort of insight into the third? The very magic cat.

There's options there. Magic Matt. There's, you know, there's... No, no, it goes, Rani Tabri. Rani Tabri and the Magic Hat. Randy Tabri and the Magic Cat. Mani Tabri and the Magic Hat. And then Rani Tabri and the Very Magic Cat.

Look, they're not very good at marketing in Lebanon, okay? But these are for America. Yeah, well, they're marketing. from Lebanon to what they think Americans want. Thanks so much, Rani. That's a real thrill for us. Yeah, it's lovely. Thank you. Tuning in from Lebanon, that is real bloody cool.

I'd also love to thank from Williamsburg, Virginia. Oh. Virginia is a place that seems to come into stories on this show relatively frequently. I'd love to thank Tyler Reeves, who's got a real superhero. I can picture him as a quarterback for sure. Tyler Reeves. Definitely. He's got a great arm on him, I reckon.

Tyler Reeves and the... Small donut. I mean, they're not... I mean, what's this story about? And it's in a magical world? Yeah, it's a fucking magic donut. Can I go now? But the donuts, it's small.

Magic donut. I mean, the magic in it's big, but physically it's a small donut. Do you want to go to... I mean, the force of a stone wasn't huge, was it? No. You could carry it. And... You put it in a small.

small paper bag like a donut we don't know that the Philosopher's Stone wasn't a donut it goes well with coffee like a donut two for one special

Matt's laughing we definitely lost our minds can I go no it's not a good sign of Matt laugh but thank you so much to Tyler Tyler in Virginia

Tyler and Ranny let me go you can go but there's no way you're gonna do better than Tyler and Rani I would like to thank from Castle Hill

in New South Wales Ben Campbell Oh Ben Campbell and the Captain's chair That's pretty good That's pretty good I mean he lives in Castle Hill

And you found no inspiration there Captain of the castle Yeah Every Castle needs a captain That's true And every castle needs a chair Yeah what else you're going to do Stand all the time

Look I feel quite foolish Good I would read that book. Thank you very much to Ben. So he's in Castle Hill, New South Wales. Castle Hill, New South Wales. Cambo. And I would also like to thank from Yina in Victoria.

You know where Yina is, mate? You've probably been a lot of country stuff. Yeah, I'm not familiar with the Yenar. I'm not familiar either, but that does not stop me from thanking our good friend, Matt Dennis. Mattie D. Good on your Matt. and the... Matt, Dennis and the

butterfly kisses. Oh, that's fucking cute. Is that that eyelash thing? Yeah. Will you kiss someone with your eyelashes? I love a butterfly kiss. Give me one. I'm too sweaty.

Don't come here as close, please. I don't come here. Please don't come in me. Well, I'd like to think. All right, how about you guys get one each year? Okay. Jess, you can do this first one. This person's also from Richmond in Virginia.

There's Richmond's around the world, but that's amazing. Virginia is a real. a hotspot for us. We might have to do a live show in Virginia. So Tyler was from Williamsburg, Virginia, and I looked it up, Richmond, Virginia is only 50 miles away. They could be friends.

Isn't that cool? They should be pentails. Kara Michael. Kara Michael from Richmond, Virginia. Thank you so much. Kara Michael and the wooden clock. Ooh, sounds magical. That does sound like.

I've got questions. Is it all wooden? Like the mechanical parts, wouldn't? Yeah, it's all wooden. That sounds great. I'd read that book, too. I just looked up, you know, it's in Gippsland. It's near Morwell, Traalgan, Mowie, the Hazelwood Power Plant, that kind of area.

Awesome. I once went to the Hazelwood Power Plant on its open day. Got a little show bag. It included a piece of coal. Are you kidding? I got the photos there wearing a hard hat as a little kid. Thank God we don't have any radio like nuclear power plants. There's an open open open.

We went as a family Why? We went as a family We were obviously Not very wealthy I know the Athuanese Doesn't do stuff like that is it? No my parents were going to be to Disneyland

Yeah exactly You guys went to Disneyland I went to Giftsland To go to a coal factory And you got a piece of coal There you go, sport Have fun with it Your new toy

Mom Am I going to get a Christmas present? No, that's it, man That is your Christmas present. And who else we got? Finally, from Adelaide, a place that Matt is going to be hitting up early next year for the Fringe Festival.

Yes. I would like to thank Cass Edwards. Thank you Cass. Cass Edwards, Matt. This is you. Cass Edwards and the Frog of Fire. The Frog of Fire. Oh man, that was pretty close to a real Harry Potter.

To be honest, I don't think they'll get it. I don't think they'll get it. All right. How would you translate that? Of Fire. No, it's From Fire. It was forged. It should be frog from fire.

It was forged in the depths of hell. Cass Edwards and the evil frog. Cass Edwards and the hot toad. The hot toddy. The hotie toddy. That's it. We've just sold a million copies in America, guys. Hardy hell.

Well done. 20 more hours. Thank you so much, Cass Edwards. I hope someone draws all those covers up. Dave, I hope that person is you. If someone did all the Harry Potter covers with the new titles, that would be pretty cool. putting it out there

We're making requests now For fan art that we want Yeah If you could also draw me as a bodybuilder Yeah But only send it to me That's just for Tinder profile Tinder profile

And a bit of self-confidence All wrapped in one So thank you It's so hot It is so hot guys If you'd like to contribute it to our Patreon How about we make a Patreon Goal where we buy a fucking air conditioner

Oh that'd be nice And stop complaining That'd be so good That'd be great But thanks again for listening and of course to the man Rowan Epstein one of our faithful Patreon people for suggesting Harry Potter if you want to suggest a topic just like he did

do go on pod at gmail.com always open and do go on pot or at do go on pot I should say for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter yeah follow us on those we try to post stuff on there regularly I think we're going to try and streamline the hat so it's just going to be like a form online somewhere but we'll post that somewhere soon and probably update you on that maybe next

week. Yeah, that's coming soon. It's going to be good for everyone. Especially me, I'm sure I miss people's suggestions, which makes me feel incomplete. Good. We'll never recover. The pod's ruined. Get out.

Well, we've got to go chest-hise Matt a bit more about this, but until next week, thanks for listening, and I will say goodbye. Later. Bye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit PlanetBcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want, it's up to you. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there.

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