She was the first person to become a billionaire from writing novels. But since the last Potter came out in 2007, she has kept herself busy - and confounded expectations
2007: The Tales of Beedle The Bard
J K Rowling initially wrote and illustrated just seven handmade copies of The Tales of Beedle The Bard. The fictional book of children's fairytales, first mentioned in the final Harry Potter instalment, was bought to life by Rowling as a thank you gift to six people who helped her during the 17 years she worked on Harry Potter. The seventh copy was sold at auction in Sotheby's in 2007 for £1.95m, the highest selling price in history for a modern manuscript, and all proceeds were donated to Lumos, Rowling's charity for children in institutions.
Fans were so disappointed the book was not available publicly that Rowling later agreed for it to be published worldwide, with proceeds again going to Lumos. It was a wise move: in its first week of publication, the book made £4.2m for the charity.
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