£19,178 PER DAY

J K ROWLING, 51 ESTIMATED WEALTH: £600 MILLION HOW SHE MADE IT: rowling was famously a struggling single mother when she wrote the first Harry potter book in edinburgh. The stories have sold more than 450million copies, with royalties from the books, associated films and merchandising around £700million. Her robert Galbraith novels for adults have also sold more than six million copies. Surprisingly, her company pottermore’s income dropped from nearly £32 million in 2014 to ‘only’ £7 million — just over £19,000 a day — last year. Her advisers say the previous year’s figure was boosted by a one-off payment from film company Sony. meanwhile, the first of five Fantastic Beasts movie spin-offs is about to be released. Analysts predict an opening weekend box office of up to £80 million in the u.S. — although JK will get only a fraction of that.

HOW SHE SPENDS IT: She lives in a 17th-century mansion, bought in 2009 for £2 million. She also bought the £1million house next door, which she bulldozed to extend her grounds. She’s given more than £100million to good causes.