JK Rowling receives French Legion of Honor!!!

  •  
  • Page of 1 Go
  •  
Posted: 15 years ago
British writer J.K. Rowling, left, receives a bouquet from French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009. France paid homage to the author behind fiction's most famous boy magician by inducting Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling into the country's prestigious Legion of Honor on Tuesday. Sarkozy bestowed Rowling with the honorary title of 'knight' in the legion during a ceremony in a gilded hall in the Elysee presidential palace.(AP Photo/Benoit Tessier, Pool)
British writer J.K. Rowling delivers a speech after she was awarded with the medal of Knight in the Legion of Honor order by French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009. France paid homage to the author behind fiction's most famous boy magician by inducting Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling into the country's prestigious Legion of Honor on Tuesday. Sarkozy bestowed Rowling with the honorary title of 'knight' in the legion during a ceremony in a gilded hall in the Elysee presidential palace.
 
PARIS ' Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling brought a second French Legion of Honor award into her family on Tuesday, decades after her great-grandfather received the honor for battlefield courage during World War I.

President Nicolas Sarkozy bestowed the title of knight in the Legion of Honor on Rowling, who used her acceptance speech to apologize for the quality of her French accent and for having given one of the villains in her series a French name.

"I cannot say that I think that I truly deserve it, but the Legion of Honor has a particular and personal meaning," she said in a ceremony in an ornate presidential palace ballroom.

One of her great-grandfathers, who was French, had received it in 1924 for his courage in the Battle of Verdun during the First World War, she said.

Rowling also thanked her readers in France "for not having held a grudge against me for having given a French name to my evil character" in the series ' Lord Voldemort.

"I can assure you that no anti-French feeling was at the origin of this choice," she said. "As a Francophile, I have always been proud of my French blood. But I needed a name that evokes both power and exoticism."

"Voldemort himself is 100-percent English," Rowling said in French, pleading with the audience that included young French teens to forgive her accent. She noted that she had once taught French in Scotland.

Sarkozy hailed her for entrancing countless French children.

"Thanks to this internationally renowned saga, you have contributed to giving young people the taste for reading again," Sarkozy said before pinning the Legion of Honor medal on her. "With you, they understand that reading is not punishment, but a source of pleasure."

The British writer leapt to worldwide fame with the 1997 publication of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," the first of her mega-hit seven-part series. The books have sold more than 400 million copies and been translated into 67 languages, including French.

In 2003, even before it was translated into French, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" ' the fifth book in the series ' became the first book in English ever to top the French best-sellers' list.

Created by Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 19th century, the Legion of Honor is France's elite national merit society. Although foreigners cannot be officially inducted, they are routinely made honorary recipients.

Other foreign celebrities who've been inducted into the Legion of Honor include American actor Jerry Lewis, director Steven Spielberg, singer Barbra Streisand and Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.

Edited by godisone - 15 years ago
Posted: 15 years ago
Tht's great news! Rowling deserves every bit of honour for penning down such a wonderful series and for giving millions,including me, a book series that can be read over and over again without getting bored.I'm glad to read this!😛
Posted: 15 years ago
Originally posted by mad-about-Rajat


Tht's great news! Rowling deserves every bit of honour for penning down such a wonderful series and for giving millions,including me, a book series that can be read over and over again without getting bored.I'm glad to read this!😛
 
I know! That was my initial reaction as well!😃 If anyone deserves this award, she does, as she put her whole soul into her wonderful books!😛😛
Posted: 15 years ago
Know what I really like about Rowling? How she claimed that "I cannot say that I think that I truly deserve it..." I value her modesty. I don't know if she deserved the award or not; I'm happy she got it and that her speech was so humble. She is an inspiration; she really is.
Posted: 15 years ago
Originally posted by ShadowKisses


Know what I really like about Rowling? How she claimed that "I cannot say that I think that I truly deserve it..." I value her modesty. I don't know if she deserved the award or not; I'm happy she got it and that her speech was so humble. She is an inspiration; she really is.
 
You're right. She could have only said Thank You and left it at that, but she was very modest in her speech, which I loved a lot.😊 She's one of my inspirations. 
  1  

Related Topics

No Related topics found

Topic Info

3 Participants 4 Replies 1625Views

Topic started by RamKiSeeta

Last replied by RamKiSeeta

loader
loader
up-open TOP