She's got it all, hasn't she? There's a rather nice-looking and much younger anaesthetist husband, Dr Neil Murray. There are two children, nine-year-old Jessica and three-month-old David.
And there is her literary creation, a bespectacled young wizard named Harry, who has made JK Rowling (as in 'bowling') richer than the Queen of England.
Today, Joanne Kathleen Rowling's personal fortune is estimated at GBP280 million (HK$3.7 billion), a whopping #30 million more than Elizabeth II's, and with this morning's publication of the fifth book in the projected seven-title Harry Potter series, the 37-year-old author is set to become richer still.
It's enough to make you cry.
Which is exactly what Rowling did when she killed off one of her key characters during the writing of Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. As the Edinburgh-based literary superstar explained during the only media interview she has given to coincide with the book's release, on BBC television on Thursday: 'I walked into the kitchen crying and Neil said to me, 'What on earth is wrong?' and I said, 'Well, I have just killed the person'.
'Neil doesn't know who the person is and he said, 'Well, don't do it then.' I thought, 'Well, it just doesn't work like that. You are writing children's books. You need to be a ruthless killer.''
