J.K. Rowling, our Founder and Life President
J.K. Rowling is the author of the enduringly popular Harry Potter book series, as well as several stand-alone novels and a bestselling crime fiction series written under the pen name Robert Galbraith. She is also a campaigner and philanthropist.
In 2004, J.K. Rowling started campaigning in support of children living in institutions after seeing a photograph of a 5-year-old child with disabilities in a caged bed in a Czech care home. She wrote to Czech political leaders, prompting the removal of caged beds and the phasing out of net beds. After understanding the scale of the harm caused by institutions, and driven by a belief in every child’s right to grow up in a safe and loving family, J.K. Rowling founded Lumos in 2005.
To accompany the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling wrote three short companion volumes for charity, Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in aid of Lumos. Her 2008 Harvard commencement speech was published in 2015 as an illustrated book, Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, with proceeds also supporting Lumos and university–wide financial aid at Harvard.
Beyond Lumos, J.K. Rowling supports a wide range of humanitarian causes through her charitable trust, Volant, and the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic – a world-leading research and treatment centre for Multiple Sclerosis and other degenerative neurological conditions in Scotland. She is the founder of Beira’s Place, a women’s sexual assault support centre, and the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, a legal fund supporting women protecting their sex-based rights.
As well as receiving an OBE and Companion of Honour for services to children’s literature and philanthropy, J.K. Rowling has received many other awards and honours, including France’s Légion d’Honneur, Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award and Denmark’s Hans Christian Andersen Award.
J.K. Rowling, our Founder and Life President
J.K. Rowling is the author of the enduringly popular Harry Potter book series, as well as several stand-alone novels and a bestselling crime fiction series written under the pen name Robert Galbraith. She is also a campaigner and philanthropist.
In 2004, J.K. Rowling started campaigning in support of children living in institutions after seeing a photograph of a 5-year-old child with disabilities in a caged bed in a Czech care home. She wrote to Czech political leaders, prompting the removal of caged beds and the phasing out of net beds. After understanding the scale of the harm caused by institutions, and driven by a belief in every child’s right to grow up in a safe and loving family, J.K. Rowling founded Lumos in 2005.
To accompany the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling wrote three short companion volumes for charity, Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in aid of Lumos. Her 2008 Harvard commencement speech was published in 2015 as an illustrated book, Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, with proceeds also supporting Lumos and university–wide financial aid at Harvard.
Beyond Lumos, J.K. Rowling supports a wide range of humanitarian causes through her charitable trust, Volant, and the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic – a world-leading research and treatment centre for Multiple Sclerosis and other degenerative neurological conditions in Scotland. She is the founder of Beira’s Place, a women’s sexual assault support centre, and the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, a legal fund supporting women protecting their sex-based rights.
As well as receiving an OBE and Companion of Honour for services to children’s literature and philanthropy, J.K. Rowling has received many other awards and honours, including France’s Légion d’Honneur, Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award and Denmark’s Hans Christian Andersen Award.