A woman from Britain wrote Harry Potter.
Harry Potter is a series of fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling . Joanne Rowling , ( [ ˈrəʊlɪŋ ] born 31 July 1965 ) , pen names J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith , is a British novelist , screenwriter and film producer best known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series . Born in Yate , Gloucestershire , England , Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series while on a delayed train from Manchester to London in 1990 . She is the United Kingdom 's best-selling living author , with sales in excess of # 238M .