Rowling’s Billion

The Guardian’s Zoe Williams does not appear to like fantasy. In her “This Week” column on the back of today’s paper, she observes that JK Rowling’s wealth had remained at $1billion, same as last year and compares this with the fact that other billionaires such as Bill Gates and Roman Abramovitch have lost substantial fractions of their net worth. She concludes:

“What did Rowling know that all the financial acuity in the world couldn’t predict? Could she not have told us that instead of writing that stupid fairy book?”

Despite being neither a finance wizz-kid nor in any way aquainted with Ms Rowling or her accountant, I am going to venture an answer. I rather think that the “stupid fairy book” might have had something to do with it by generating enough income to cover her losses on the stock market. There are people in the world who want fantasy whereas nobody really wants or needs Windows Vista, they just get lumbered with it if they buy a new PC. Just like you get lumbered with Williams’ stupid comments if you buy the Guardian.

Tags: J.K. Rowling, The Guardian, Zoe Williams