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| When it comes to writing bestsellers Rowling has the Midas touch, with 270m books sold in 62 languages to date; this summer's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — the sixth book in a seven-part series — already has its place assured at the top of the bestseller lists around the world. Rowling's life on a Perthshire estate, with further homes in Edinburgh and London, is a far cry from the days she spent in an Edinburgh cafe writing the first Harry Potter novel — and keeping warm — in the company of her daughter Jessica, now 11. She has two further children to entertain: a son, David, born in 2003 and second daughter Mackenzie, who arrived this January. Rowling, 39, has not taken the tax avoidance measures of many of the super-rich, so this year's bonanza will be good news for the Inland Revenue. We put her earnings from her books alone at £300m. Merchandising, endorsements and the three Potter films add another £70m, but after her tax bill Rowling is left with perhaps £300m of current wealth. Yet she is especially fortunate as an author in that the next two books and the four films give her almost guaranteed future earnings. Thus we ascribe a further £200m to her asset wealth. She puts something back as well: there has been talk of a Harry Potter encyclopaedia using material cut from the series, the proceeds of which would go to charity | ||||||||||||||
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