00:05It's November 2006.
00:10J.K. Rowling is working in secret on the final chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a
00:16hotel room in Edinburgh.
00:23Yeah, I've helpfully made the note for myself, this will need very serious planning.
00:30I don't know when I wrote that.
00:34And I was quite right in that.
00:37The Harry Potter series has taken 17 years to write.
00:42It's an epic saga of childhood confusion, danger and adventure.
00:48But it's more than just a children's story.
00:51Behind the witchcraft and the wizardry lies an intensely moral fable about good and evil, love and hatred, life and
00:59death.
01:03My name is James Rontzi.
01:05I'm a writer and a filmmaker and I want to find out the secret of J.K. Rowling's success.
01:12How has she done it and where has it all come from?
01:16You look really nice, James.
01:18Oh, thank you.
01:31This is J.K. Rowling's country house in Perthshire.
01:35Once inside, I decided to start the film by asking a few direct questions.
01:42What's your favourite virtue?
01:44Courage.
01:45What vice do you most despise?
01:48Bigotry.
01:49What are you most willing to forgive?
01:51Gluttony.
01:52What's your most marked characteristic?
01:55I'm a trier.
01:56What are you most afraid of?
01:58Losing someone I love.
02:00What's the quality you most like in a man?
02:04Morals.
02:05What's the quality you most like in a woman?
02:09Generosity.
02:10What do you most value about your friends?
02:14Tolerance.
02:15What's your principal defect?
02:17Short views.
02:19What's your favourite occupation?
02:21Writing.
02:22What's your dream of happiness?
02:27Happy family.
02:32The desire for a happy family comes, in part, from a difficult childhood.
02:38Like her orphaned hero Harry Potter,
02:41Joanne Rowling was brought up on a suburban British street.
02:44First in Yate, just outside Bristol.
02:48And then, a few miles down the road, in Winterbourne.
02:53The house even had a cupboard under the stairs.
02:58But unlike Harry Potter, Jo wasn't made to sleep there.
03:06She shares the same birthday as Harry Potter, the 31st of July.
03:12And together with her sister Di, injured similar childhood economies.
03:19What were your haircuts like?
03:20Oh, that's, that's just not, that's just wrong.
03:23They were terrible.
03:25Honestly, this is child abuse.
03:26They were terrible.
03:27I don't want to show it though.
03:28They were, they...
03:30I've got it here.
03:31But I'm a snot, right, that.
03:33Look at my French.
03:37I don't think anyone can stomach that for long.
03:41If you're wondering, Jo is the one on the right.
03:44If you weren't used to cutting hair,
03:46wouldn't you approach it in a gentle, slow manner?
03:50Well, wouldn't you go to a hairdresser?
03:51Well, maybe they could, but wouldn't you just,
03:53but wouldn't you just cut it slowly and not attack it like a hatchet?
03:58I do think you've come a...
04:00Mine was always crooked, always.
04:03Did you wear similar clothes?
04:04Oh, my God, yes.
04:06Different colours.
04:07Yeah, you always had pink.
04:08And I always had blue.
04:11Because you were the boy, Jo?
04:12Yeah.
04:13Because you were the eldest?
04:14Yeah, and I was supposed to be a boy, so...
04:16Simon John?
04:17I was supposed to be Simon John.
04:18I didn't know who I was supposed to be.
04:20Oh, they told you?
04:20Oh, yeah.
04:21She was a massive disappointment.
04:23Yeah.
04:24And, um, so then I said, quite hopefully,
04:27and when Di came along, were you disappointed too?
04:29No.
04:31I said, was that because you found out it was quite nice to have a girl?
04:34No.
04:36So then I just went upstairs and wept.
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