J.K. Rowling wrote much of the early Harry Potter material in Edinburgh, Scotland, while raising her daughter Jessica. She moved to Edinburgh in 1993 after marrying and later separating from her first husband, Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes.
Rowling famously worked in cafés such as Nicolson’s and The Elephant House, although she also wrote at home and in other locations. Edinburgh’s streets, architecture and literary history are often associated with the atmosphere of the wizarding world, even though Hogwarts is fictional.
The city became Rowling’s long-term home and the place where she completed the series’ later books. The Elephant House has sometimes been promoted as “the birthplace of Harry Potter,” but Rowling has said she began planning the character years earlier and wrote in many places.