BBC News | SCOTLAND | Rowling heads rich list

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has been named Scotland's top earner - ahead of Rangers tycoon David murray and Stagecoach founder Brian Souter.

Rowling, the brains behind the phenomenally successful children's books, came top in the Scottish section of the Sunday Times Pay List with a take-home salary of �25m.

The Scottish top 10, published in full in the paper on Sunday, showed business-people dominated the top earners.

But one Lottery winner also featured, with annual earnings of �3.33m.

Sales records

JK Rowling's earnings came in the year she released the fourth in the Harry Potter series, the Goblet of Fire, with her annual pay making her Britain's 36th best-paid person.

It shot to the top of the bestsellers list worldwide on its day of release and has already broken all sales records for children's books before being released in paperback.

The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, is set to be released as a film next summer, with filming under way at the moment.

Second and third on the list are Sir Fraser and Gordon Morrison, of the family building firm, who took home �23.21m and �23.08m last year.

Brian Souter was fifth on the list

Morrison's is one of the UK's biggest building and construction groups but remains under the control of the family which founded it.

Rangers tycoon David Murray's annual pay cheque was �8.6m, while Stagecoach founder Brian Souter took home �6.31m. That placed him fifth on the list, with his sister and co-founder Ann Gloag coming in at seventh with �4.87m.

New technology makes an appearance at number eight in the list, with Chris Gorman of Reality Group earning �4.2m.

Next came rally driver Colin McRae, who earned �3.5m from a combination of his winnings, endorsement of products - including computer games - and personal appearances.

Number 10 on the list was Lottery winner Walter Cross.


		^^ Back to top News Front Page \| World \| UK \| UK Politics \| Business \| Sci/Tech \| Health \| Education \| Entertainment \| Talking Point \| In Depth \| AudioVideo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To BBC Sport>> \| To BBC Weather>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII \| News Sources \| Privacy