Author Rowling adds to OBE by joining order

She is one of the world’s most successful authors and has made millions through her stories that captivated a worldwide audience.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling is now also well known for her philanthropy and pours money into her charitable interests.

After being made an OBE in 2001, she is now becoming a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for her services to literature and philanthropy.

It is a far cry from the days almost 20 years ago when the first Harry Potter book was published with a print run of around 500 copies.

Rowling, whose first name is Joanne, has previously told how her famous boy wizard creation simply “fell” into her head years earlier while on a crowded train to London after a weekend spent flat-hunting with her then boyfriend in Manchester in 1990.

Sitting on the delayed train, she said she had “never been so excited about an idea before”.

Harry Potter was born, and on her return home that night, Rowling immediately began writing what would become the first book of the series – Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone.

Following the breakdown of her first marriage, she and her young daughter arrived in Edinburgh at the end of 1994.

Eager to finish her book, the writer famously began scribbling in the city’s cafes and found an agent.

It took another year before a publisher, Bloomsbury, was found – and the first Harry Potter book was published in 1997.

JK Rowling