JK Rowling has revealed that the OCD-afflicted lead character in her new book was inspired by her personal experience with the disorder. In the first ever interview about her new adult novel The Casual Vacancy, she describes how her own battles with anxiety and depression helped shape her protagonist. Ms Rowling, 47, told Good Morning America: [...]

Feeds Editorials Times Online

Sunday Times 2

‘These are things I know from the inside’

By Sadie Whitelocks and Tamara Abraham
JK Rowling on how her own battles with OCD inspired lead character in new novel
View(s):

JK Rowling has revealed that the OCD-afflicted lead character in her new book was inspired by her personal experience with the disorder. In the first ever interview about her new adult novel The Casual Vacancy, she describes how her own battles with anxiety and depression helped shape her protagonist.

Ms Rowling, 47, told Good Morning America: ‘We have an adult character in the book who has obsessive compulsive disorder.’
She then admitted: ‘These are things I know from the inside… When I was in my teens I had issues with OCD.’
She said that as a teenager she constantly made lists and could not stop ‘checking, double checking, triple checking’ things.
In her latest novel The Casual Vacancy, which hits bookstores tomorrow, the teenage female lead gets mixed up with prostitution, heroin addiction and teen sexuality.

As for her struggles with depression, which she has discussed in the past, Ms Rowling says it has not been part of her life for ‘more than a decade,’ attributing part of that to the success of Harry Potter.’It cheered me up a lot… Forget the money. Harry Potter gave me back self respect. Harry gave me a job to do that I loved more than anything else,’ she said.
While the The Casual Vacancy has been pegged as a ‘black comedy’, Ms Rowling says she would describe it a little differently.
‘When I read the blurb that said it’s a ‘black comedy,’ I thought – that’s not maybe how I would’ve described it. I would’ve maybe said it’s a comic tragedy,’ she added.

© Daily Mail, London




Share This Post

DeliciousDiggGoogleStumbleuponRedditTechnoratiYahooBloggerMyspace
comments powered by Disqus

Advertising Rates

Please contact the advertising office on 011 - 2479521 for the advertising rates.