Irish Examiner view: Our world is full of value judgements

JK Rowling is portrayed as transphobic, a charge that has its roots in her comments about an article that discussed 'people who menstruate'

JK Rowling's first draft of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone' was rejected by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury accepted it. File picture

A little over a quarter of a century ago, Bloomsbury Publishing accepted a draft script from an aspiring author teetering on the edge of poverty. Her manuscript had been rejected by 12 other publishers, one of whom simply said: “My list is full. The folder you sent wouldn’t fit in the envelope.”

Like the man who turned down The Beatles, or rejected George Best for being “too small and light”, history has drawn a comforting veil of anonymity over these decisions and put them in the file labelled “we can all make mistakes”.