J.K. Rowling
1 portrait
© Neil Wilder
J.K. Rowling
by Neil Wilder
chromogenic print, 1 July 1999
15 3/8 in. x 15 3/8 in. (391 mm x 391 mm)
Purchased, 2002
Photographs Collection
NPG x125493
Linked publicationsback to top
- 100 Photographs, 2018, p. 123 Read entry
The creator of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter books, Joanne
Kathleen Rowling (b.1965) studied French and Classics at Exeter University and began writing while working for Amnesty International in London. Rowling has said that the characters and plot of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997), came to her ‘fully formed’ during a train journey in 1990. The series has been translated into sixty-one languages, sold over a quarter of a billion copies worldwide and been made into major feature films. Born and brought up in Cape Town, South Africa, Neil Wilder (b.1959) has taken portraits of international celebrities for leading magazine publications. He photographed Rowling in Edinburgh, where she wrote the early Potter novels in a café overlooking the city’s castle.
Events of 1999back to top
Current affairs
Following referendums in 1997, The Scottish Parliament is opened and Welsh Assembly established in 1999. The new Scottish Parliament has the powers to pass legislation and alter tax. The Welsh Assembly currently has less legislative authority but controls a budget for Wales and can amend legislation passed by Westminster.The House of Lords Act removes all but 92 Hereditary Lords from the second chamber.
Art and science
Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman's film, Shakespeare in Love wins the Oscar for Best Picture. The film, starring Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Rush, and Colin Firth, among other British screen stars, provides a fictitious account of the events that inspired William Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet.International
NATO begins a bombing campaign against the government of Yugoslavia following the breakdown of the Rambouillet Accords that attempted to grant Kosovo autonomy within Serbia under NATO administration. After nearly three months of bombing, Slobodan Milosevic agreed to allow a peacekeeping force to enter Kosovo and the province was placed under a United Nations Interim Administration.Comments back to top
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