Prince of Asturias Awards

Concord 2003

With her seven Harry Potter books, the work of the English writer J.K. Rowling has become an unparalleled sociological and human phenomenon in modern-day culture. The social significance of Rowling’s creation lies in having got children belonging to ethnic groups and cultures from all over the world to discover the joy of reading and in enabling them to discover in the fascinating adventures of Harry Potter a stimulus for imagination and creativity. Most importantly, Rowling’s work also prompts young people to identify with such essential human values as the ability to discern between good and evil and to recognise how important cooperation and solidarity are in overcoming life's problems and obstacles. In short, her work promotes ideas and skills that foster and lead to understanding and concord amongst Mankind.

Rowling's life is a valuable example of struggle in the face of adversity. She finished the first Harry Potter book in a very precarious situation indeed, thanks to a grant from the Scottish Arts Council. Nowadays, her books –which have sold over four hundred million copies– have been translated into more than fifty languages. To quote Pilar García Mouton, research fellow at the Spanish National Research Council’s Spanish Language Institute, Rowling has succeeded in getting “children in many countries to go to enormous lengths to read books that are hundreds of pages long, at a time when reading seemed to be a lost cause. The imagination of these millions of children worldwide will forever find in these texts a common point of contact that will be a bond of peace for an entire generation”. Likewise, in the words of Rosa Navarro, Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Barcelona, “the power of the Harry Potter adventures is such that young boys and girls have learnt English so as to be able to read them as soon as they have gone on sale to the public. The power emanating from these works leads to reading or learning, two activities that provide enormous benefits to the person [who does so]”. The seventh and final book in the Harry Potter collection was published in 2007.  J.K. Rowling has also written two books whose entire profits have gone to different charities and has launched a project to promote reading among children worldwide.

Among other awards, she holds the Smarties Prize Gold Medal and the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year. She was the first author to win the Smarties Book Prize three years running and was awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 2001. She has received honorary degrees from the Universities of St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Aberdeen [pb1] and Harvard as well as from Edinburgh Napier University. In 2008, she was invested as a Chevalier of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour.

(Note: Photograph © William de la Hey)