As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories which she frequently read to her sister.[16] Aged nine, Rowling moved to Church Cottage in the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales.[27] She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother worked in the science department.[23] When she was a young teenager, her great-aunt gave her a copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels.[36] Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling read all of her books.[37]
Rowling has said that her teenage years were unhappy.[22] Her home life was complicated by her mother's illness and a strained relationship with her father, with whom she is not on speaking terms.[22] Rowling later said that she based the character of Hermione Granger on herself when she was eleven.[38] Steve Eddy, who taught Rowling English when she first arrived, remembers her as "not exceptional" but "one of a group of girls who were bright, and quite good at English".[22] Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth, owned a turquoise Ford Anglia which she says inspired a flying version that appeared in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.[39] At this time, she listened to the Smiths and the Clash.[40] Rowling took A-levels in English, French and German, achieving two As and a B[28] and was Head Girl.[22]
In 1982, Rowling took the entrance exams for Oxford University but was not accepted[22] and read for a BA in French and Classics at the University of Exeter.[41] Martin Sorrell, a French professor at Exeter, remembers "a quietly competent student, with a denim jacket and dark hair, who, in academic terms, gave the appearance of doing what was necessary".[22] Rowling recalls doing little work, preferring to listen to the Smiths and read Dickens and Tolkien.[22] After a year of study in Paris, Rowling graduated from Exeter in 1986[22] and moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International.[42] In 1988, Rowling wrote a short essay about her time studying Classics entitled "What was the Name of that Nymph Again? or Greek and Roman Studies Recalled"; it was published by the University of Exeter's journal Pegasus