Second Language. In spite of her students making jokes about her name (this time they called

her “Rolling Stone”), she enjoyed teaching. She worked afternoons and evenings, leaving

mornings free for writing. After her marriage to a Portuguese TV journalist ended in

divorce, Rowling returned to Britain with her infant daughter and a suitcase full of Harry

Potter notes and chapters. She settled in Edinburgh to be near her sister and set out to

finish the book before looking for a teaching job. Wheeling her daughter’s carriage around

the city to escape their tiny, cold apartment, she would duck into coffee shops to write

when the baby fell asleep. In this way she finished the book and started sending it to

publishers. It was rejected several times before she found an London agent, chosen because

she liked his name–Christopher Little, who sold the manuscript to Bloomsbury Children’s

Books.