Still devastated by her mother’s death, J.K. Rowling moved to Portugal in 1991, to work as an English teacher at a language institute. In her own words, this period was the start of a dark time in her life.
“I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded … and the fears of my parents, and those I’d had for myself, had both come to pass. By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.”
“Nine months after my mother’s death, desperate to get away for a while, I left for Portugal. I took with me the still-growing manuscript of Harry Potter, hopeful that my new working hours (I taught in the afternoon and evening) would lend themselves to pressing on with my novel.The manuscript had changed a lot since my mother had died. Now, Harry's feelings about his dead parents had become much deeper; much stronger; much more real, somehow.
In those first weeks in Portugal I wrote what has become my favourite chapter in the Philosopher's Stone, "The Mirror of Erised" – and had hoped that, when I returned from Portugal I would have a finished book under my arm. In fact, I had something even better: my daughter, Jessica.
I had married a Portuguese man and, although the marriage did not work, it had given me one of the best things in my life. Jessica and I arrived in Edinburgh, where Di was living, just in time for Christmas 1993.”