Prince Charles awards OBE to JK Rowling

The Prince of Wales revealed he is a Harry Potter fan when he asked the schoolboy wizard’s creator JK Rowling: “Is the film as good as the book?”

Presenting Ms Rowling with the insignia of her OBE at Buckingham Palace, the Prince wanted to know more about the eagerly awaited movie of her first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

The author received her medal for services to children’s literature. Wearing a smart peach outfit for the investiture, she said it was a “real honour” to receive the award. She said: “The Prince asked me about the film. He said he can’t wait, and he wanted to know whether it was true how I saw the story in my mind. I said that it was.”

JK Rowling, an Edinburgh-based single mother, added: “It’s always very difficult for TV and film adaptations to live up to a book. But I had a lot of input in this one and although it can never be 100 per cent I think it’s going to be great.”

She praised the child actors in the production, in which Daniel Radcliffe, 11, plays Harry. "They cast three unknowns for the main parts and they are fantastic children,” she said. “I love those kids. It’s an all British cast and that was my dream, but I didn’t think it would happen.”

Ms Rowling, who was at the investiture with her sister, said her intention was to finish writing all seven Harry Potter books that she has planned out, and then “do something completely different. It will be nice to sink back to obscurity.”

She said: “The books are all planned and I desperately do want to write to the end of the story. I see it as one huge novel.”