THESE days she appears in Vanity Fair's best-dressed female authors list and turns up at premieres wearing dresses by Oscar De La Renta and heels by Christian Laboutin.

But JK Rowling says since becoming famous she resents having to make an effort with her appearance. Speaking on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4, Rowling, 48, says she decided to "tidy myself up a bit" when people began to comment on how she looked when she first began to appear in the public eye after the success of her Harry Potter books.

She said: "I would be a liar if I said I don't care. I found it very difficult, when I first became well-known, to read criticism about how I looked how messy my hair was, and how unkempt I looked.

"I did tidy myself up a bit. But I do often resent the amount of time it takes to pull yourself together to go on TV."