Eccleshare, Julia -
Edinburgh -
Enoch, Alfred -
Errol -
Eton -
Evens, Bryony -
Exeter -
Exeter University
Eccleshare, Julia
Author of A Guide to the Harry Potter Novels
(Continuum International Publishing Group 2002), Julia Eccleshare
is also a journalist and broadcaster. She is Children's Book Editor
for the Guardian and regularly appears on BBC Radio 4.
Edinburgh
Rowling moved to Edinburgh, Scotland to be near her sister in late 1993.
She taught French and began writing the Harry Potter novels in earnest
in her early years in Edinburgh. Her first flat in Edinburgh was in Leith.
She was able to move into a nicer neighborhood, 19 Hazelbank Terrace, in
1997, shortly after the first novel was published.
Enoch, Alfred
Born in December 1988, Alfred Enoch was cast as
Dean Thomas in the
Harry Potter films.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0257917/
Errol
A village in Scotland, near Perth, which may have served as inspiration for
the name of the Weasley family
owl.
Eton
The Muggle school that Justin
Finch-Fletchley was to have attended until he received his Hogwarts
letter (CS6). The
Wall Game
at Eton was at one time thought by some readers to be the inspiration for
Quidditch.
Evens, Bryony
Office manager and personal assistant to
Christopher Little at the time JKR first
submitted her manuscript of PS
to the Christopher Little Agency in 1996.
Bryony Evens had set Rowling's manuscript into the pile to be automatically
rejected because the agency didn't handle children's literature, but she
read the first chapter on a break and presented it to Fleur Howle, a
freelance reader for the agency. After requesting and devouring the balance
of the manuscript, Evens presented the work to
Christopher Little, who read it overnight
and was enthusiastic. Evens handled all the editorial communications with
JKR at this stage. Before Rowling could meet her in person, Evens left the
Christopher Little Agency to work for an
estate agency (a job she held for three years before returning to publishing
at Michael O'Mara Books). Bryony Evens and Rowling did meet eventually at
the Cheltenham Literary Festival in October 1998
(SS_JKRB).
Exeter
Rowling attended university in Exeter.
Just to the east of Exeter lies the village of
of Ottery St. Mary, while
the village of Chudleigh
is located just to the west of Exeter. See each of their entries for
possible connections with place names in the
Harry Potter books.
Exeter University
JKR attended university at Exeter University (http://www.ex.ac.uk). She
took a degree in French and Classics in 1987. She studied abroad in Paris
for a year (1985-86). She has indicated she would have preferred to study
English at university because of her lifelong love of literature, but her
parents encouraged her to study French, which they presumed would help
her secure a good job after university. "Her parents wanted her to be a
translator or interpreter, maybe work in the United Nations"
(WP1). She
was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree from Exeter University
on 14 July 2000.
