SHE started out in a two-room flat in Edinburgh and wrote her first book in a cafe to save on fuel bills. Now JK Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, is to cement her position as one of the world’s wealthiest women by rubbing shoulders with Hollywood’s elite in a £75,000-a-month holiday home.

The author, who has a fortune of £500m, is renting a house this summer in the Hamptons, the millionaires’ playground east of New York which counts Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg and Paris Hilton among its residents.

According to local estate agents, Rowling has signed a lease for a property in Bridgehampton, a picture-postcard village at the centre of the Atlantic coast community and home to the prestigious annual Hampton Classic Horse Show.

Despite the astronomical price tag, Rowling, Neil Murray, her husband, and her three children, Jessica, David, and MacKenzie, will be staying in a relatively “modest” property without the waterfront address and stunning sea views that typically command £290,000 a month.

Even though she has impeccable literary credentials, Rowling has chosen not to stay in Sag Harbour — a mecca for American authors. According to estate agents this is probably because it would be difficult for her to find the security and seclusion she requires.

Property prices in the Hamptons have soared in recent years. Last year, a 40-acre estate with a three-bedroom farmhouse and converted barn was sold for £52m, a new American record. Many wealthy owners leave during the summer and rent out their properties to cash in on the demand.

And while locals are used to the glitterati, the author is the talk of Hamptons.

“JK Rowling is huge,” said one estate agent, who asked not to be named. “The news that she is coming here has raised a few eyebrows. The property she has rented is likely to be a four-bedroom beach house. You get the pool and Jacuzzi, but not the best area or a view.”

Rowling owns four properties in the UK, including a £1.5m mansion in Edinburgh, and a £4.5m house in Kensington. The 40-year-old is currently working on the seventh, and final, Harry Potter novel.

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