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JK Rowling invented Quidditch to "infuriate" men

The fictional sport of Quidditch was only invented because JK Rowling had an argument with her boyfriend, the 'Harry Potter' author has disclosed. JK Rowling said she designed the game in a Manchester hotel room after rowing with her then-boyfriend.



The sport is one of the most famous elements of the 'Harry Potter' books and films. The author, who famously wrote the first of the series when she was a cash-strapped single mother, has now disclosed some of the secrets behind its creation.

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She will auction a hand-signed, annotated first edition of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', containing insights into how she wrote it. The book, to be sold by Sotheby's to benefit literacy charity English PEN, contains a note on Quidditch, which Rowling said "infuriated" men.

"[Quidditch] was invented in a small hotel in Manchester after a row with my then boyfriend," she has written alongside the text. "I had been pondering the things that hold a society together, cause it to congregate and signify its particular character and knew I needed a sport.

"It infuriates men...which is quite satisfying given my state of mind when I invented it."

The disclosure comes in the 1,000 extra words Rowling has added to her children's novel. On another page, she writes: "I wrote the book in snatched hours, in clattering cafes and or the dead of night. For me, the whole story of how I wrote 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' is written invisibly on every page and legible only to me."

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As well as adding over 43 pages of her "second thoughts" upon reading the book again, she has included 22 hand-drawn illustrations including one of a baby Harry Potter sleeping on the Dursleys' doorstep.

Rowling's book will be sold on May 21 as part of the 'First Editions: Second Thoughts' sale, alongside work by Ian McEwan and Sir Tom Stoppard.