£72 million earnings this year make JK Rowling the highest-paid author

Harry Potter creator JK Rowling has been named the world’s most highly paid author with earnings of £72.2 million this year. The Edinburgh-based writer beat the likes of Dan Brown, Stephen King and John Grisham to top Forbes’ list of the industry’s 10 highest earners for the first years.

The announcement comes soon after her legions of fans celebrated the 20th anniversary of her first instalment of the boy wizard series.

She has written a further six Harry Potter titles, which have been turned into eight blockbuster films, and last year she made her screenwriting debut with a prequel movie, Fantastic Beasts And Where

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10 To Find Them. On Wednesday it was announced that the hit stage play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child will move to Broadway next year.

The 52-year-old motherof-three began writing about the wizarding world while struggling to make ends meet living as a single mother on benefits in Edinburgh.

The books’ popularity soon made her a multimillionaire.