Magic! JK Rowling earned £140-a-minute last year

JK rOWling has been named the world’s highest paid author – after earning a spell-binding £72million in the past year.

the author topped the Forbes list following the success of hit film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, for which she wrote the screenplay, and awardwinning West end play harry Potter and the cursed child.

the 52-year-old – who has previously been said to have a fortune of around £650million – beat the likes of Dan Brown, Stephen King, Danielle Steel and John grisham on the list of the ten highest-earning authors. Forbes estimates that Miss rowling earned £72,183,000 in the year to 31 May – equivalent to £140 per minute.

Miss rowling previously topped the list in 2008 with earnings of around £170million, following the publication of harry Potter and the Deathly hallows in July 2007.

in second place was american author James Patterson, earning £66million, ahead of Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney, who came in third with considerably lower earnings of £16million.