JK Rowling launches book for charity

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has launched a book of short stories for a charity helping single parents and their children.

The Harry Potter author has written the foreword to Magic - a collection of specially written tales by 18 of Britain's top authors.

In the book, Rowling describes her own experiences as a single parent and the battle she faced to make ends meet.

It features stories by Meera Syal, Joanne Harris, Sue Townsend and Ben Okrie.

The book has been co-edited by Sarah Brown, the wife of the British Chancellor Gordon Brown, and was launched today at the headquarters of the Magic Circle in London.

Nigel Newton, chief executive of publishers Bloomsbury, said: "It is very appropriate that the launch should take place at the Magic Circle because it was something of a conjuring trick to gather the 18 authors, get them to write about magic and get them to donate their stories for free."

Rowling said: "Some of the newspaper articles written about me have come close to romanticising the time I spent on Income Support because the well-worn cliche of the writer starving in the garret is so much more picturesque than the bitter reality of living in poverty with a child.

"My family's escape from poverty to the reverse has been only too well documented and I am fully aware, every single day, of how lucky I am.

"I'm swamped with anger at the portrayal of single mothers by certain politicians and newspapers as feckless teenagers in search of that Holy Grail, the council flat, when 97% of us have long since left our teens."

Proceeds from the book will go to the National Council of One Parent Families' Magic Million Appeal. Rowling launched the appeal last year.