Image copyright AP Image caption Ms Rowling strongly denied she supported misogyny or abuse

JK Rowling has suggested she may sue for defamation after an MP accused the Harry Potter author of defending "abusive misogynist trolls" on Twitter.

Glasgow East MP Natalie McGarry said Ms Rowling had "tweeted support" for a Twitter user who goes by the pseudonym Brian Spanner.

The author strongly denied the claim and demanded an apology.

Ms McGarry later apologised for "any misguided inference" that Ms Rowling supports misogyny or abuse.

But she subsequently retweeted an image that had been altered to wrongly suggest Ms Rowling had responded "you're a good man" to an abusive tweet sent by Brian Spanner.

The "good man" tweet had actually been made after Brian Spanner helped to raise money for Ms Rowling's children's charity, the author said.

Image caption Ms McGarry has made her Twitter account private since the exchange with Ms Rowling

Ms Rowling suggested she was considering legal action against Ms McGarry, tweeting: "You don't appear to understand how Twitter or defamation works. I'm going to help you out with the latter."

She also said she would donate any damages to her Lumos charity, and asked Ms McGarry: "I assume the apology's retracted, given the cut and paste screenshot you sent misrepresenting my interaction with BSpanner?"

Ms Rowling asked the politician: "It is your view that if person A interacts with person B on Twitter, they must be "supportive" of B's every tweet?"

Ms McGarry withdrew from the SNP whip at Westminster after the Women for Independence group called in police to investigate alleged financial discrepancies in its accounts.

She has now made her Twitter account private.

Image copyright Twitter

Image copyright Twitter

Ms McGarry had initially tweeted: "Wow @jk_rowling vanity searches her name & then defends abusive misogynist trolls. Almost makes me regret queuing for books."

Ms Rowling, who was a high-profile supporter of Scotland remaining in the UK during the independence referendum, replied that she would "love an explanation of this accusation".

She later tweeted: "You are a politician making a public accusation. Show me where I have defended abusive, misogynist trolling."

The Brian Spanner account is one of the 281 followed on Twitter by Ms Rowling, who has more than 6.6 million followers.

The account is regularly used to post abusive comments about SNP politicians.