JK Rowling’s brutal swipe at Scottish independence argument: ‘Little Death Eaterish’ | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV
Daniel Radcliffe speaks out against JK Rowling comments
Stephen Fry embarks on a journey across the world exploring the inspiration for JK Rowling’s mythical creatures in a new documentary tonight. Mr Fry, who narrated the Harry Potter audiobooks, discovers the parallels from our own natural world for BBC One special ‘Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History’. The documentary is a unique collaboration between the BBC’s Natural History Unit, the Natural History Museum and Warner Bros.
It will unravel numerous mysteries around the fantastic beasts of our own Muggle kingdom, including creatures that truly have to be seen to be believed.
Mr Fry travels far and wide learning about mermaids, dragons and natural beasts such as narwhals and manatees, and chats to JK Rowling along the way to find out more about what inspired her.
Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History, airs on BBC One at 7pm this evening, and it will also be available on BBC iPlayer.
JK Rowling made her name with the Harry Potter series, selling more than 500 million copies to date, and the prequel Fantastic Beasts series too.
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J.K. Rowling blasted Scottish independence: ‘Little Death Eaterish’ (Image: GETTY)
J.K. Rowling with Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson. (Image: GETTY)
Since then, however, she has been the subject of intense controversy over her political views, including Scottish independence and Brexit.
JK Rowling has lived in Scotland since 1993, and was eligible to vote in the 2014 independence referendum.
A staunch ‘No’ supporter, she donated £1million to the Better Together anti-independence campaign, which was fronted by her former neighbour and close friend, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling.
She wrote a blog post on her website to explain her donation, saying the more she listened to ‘Yes’ campaigners, the more she feared it “preferred the grand ‘up yours’ gesture” to considering the impacts it might have “to the prospects of future generations”.
J.K. Rowling voiced concerns over being considered ‘insufficiently Scottish’ to hold an opinion. (Image: GETTY)
She compared a section of Scottish nationalists to Death Eaters.
Death Eaters are fictional characters in her Harry Potter series, an evil tribe of wizards and witches who support Lord Voldemort and reject wizards unless they have “pure blood”, meaning exclusively magical heritage.
She wrote: “I also know that there is a fringe of nationalists who like to demonise anyone who is not blindly and unquestionably pro-independence and I suspect, notwithstanding the fact that I’ve lived in Scotland for twenty-one years and plan to remain here for the rest of my life, that they might judge me ‘insufficiently Scottish’ to have a valid view.
“It is true that I was born in the West Country and grew up on the Welsh border and while I have Scottish blood on my mother’s side, I also have English, French and Flemish ancestry.
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J.K. Rowling was born in the West Country but has lived in Edinburgh since 1993. (Image: GETTY)
“However, when people try to make this debate about the purity of your lineage, things start getting a little Death Eaterish for my taste.”
JK Rowling said she feared an independent Scotland would lose out, citing evidence that Scottish oil and gas reserves were being depleted, and a letter from Scotland’s medical schools claiming that Scottish research risked being undermined.
She added that while she was no fan of David Cameron’s Conservative government at the time, he would be “long gone before the full consequences of independence are felt”.
Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History airs at 7pm tonight (Image: GETTY)
She sought to add that she remained “friendly” with members of both the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ campaigns, writing “there are intelligent, thoughtful people on both sides of this question”.
Though JK Rowling had her wish in the 2014 referendum, as Scotland ultimately voted against independence, she felt the wrath of nationalists again four years down the line.
JK Rowling responded to a column in The National which said: “Setting the English up as our automatic enemy doesn’t help us walk away from the Union mindset or its relentless pecking order.
“And yet like a packet of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes scoffed with cold milk late at night – it’s almost irresistible.”
JK Rowling labelled the quote “Crunchy Nut Nationalism”, tweeting: “Warning: may contain traces of bigotry.”
Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History airs at 7pm tonight. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer.
