back to Awards & NomineesThe Inspiration Awards - JK Rowling

In 1995, having been rejected by 12 publishing houses, Rowling was offered a £1500 advance by Bloomsbury after presenting them with the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 

Two years later an initial print run of 1000 copies was released. Those are now said to be worth between £16,000 and £25,000 each. Rowling has since written six more books in the Harry Potter saga and, following worldwide acclaim and successful film adaptations of her work, she presides over a reported £545 million fortune, putting her among the top 150 richest people in Britain.

She has had a creative influence in that she sparked an interest in reading among children at a time when television and computer games battle for supremacy.

She is also an inspirational fundraiser. Rowling donated the handwritten history of the family of Sirius Black to a fundraiser for Book Aid International. She raised £2m for a copy of her handwritten Tales of Beedle the Bard for her charity Children’s Voice. She has raised hundreds of thousand for Multiple Sclerosis in memory of her late mother.  She is an active supporter of many charities.