JK Rowling scoops £60k prize

HARRY Potter author J K Rowling has won the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Prize.

The Edinburgh writer is the first recipient of the 500,000 kroner (60,000) award, which was handed out yesterday at a ceremony in Odense, the home town of Hans Christian Andersen.

The prize is given to a person who can be compared with Andersen, a Danish writer who was born in 1805 and wrote some 160 fairy tales and poems before his death in 1875.

Ms Rowling said the author of such classics as The Little Mermaid and the The Ugly Duckling had "created indestructible, eternal characters."

Ms Rowling's seven books about the boy wizard have sold more than 400 million copies across the world and have been translated into many languages.