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JK Rowling has said she enjoys living a “very ­unnoticed life” and can often get about without being ­recognised.

Rowling is one of the most ­high-profile writers of her ­generation thanks to her books about boy wizard Harry Potter, whose escapades include using an ­invisibility cloak.

But she told Graham Norton on his Radio 2 show: “I really do ­manage to lead a very unnoticed life which is just the way I like it.

“I think as a woman and not a particularly tall person, I blend in quite easily.”

Rowling, 53, who is about to release the new book Lethal White, wrote her adult novels under the name Robert ­Galbraith because she wanted to start again.

(Image: BBC)

She said: “I wanted not to be me. I’d always wanted to write crime and I wanted to not do it with any ­fanfare. So I submitted the manuscript ­anonymously.

“It was all great and I even enjoyed getting ­rejection letters again. It was fantastic, it was just like it used to be.

“My ambition was to try to get three out without being unmasked. Because then I thought it would have a bit of momentum. I was a bit unlucky the way it happened.”

A tweet by an ­indiscreet friend of her lawyers revealed her identity and saw sales of The Cuckoo’s Calling, about ­private eye Cormoran Strike, rocket.

Rowling added: “When it leaked ­initially, for about four horrible days, we didn’t know how it had leaked because so few people knew the secret.

“And I thought someone at the BBC has put two and two together here –same publisher, same agent and this guy won’t take a meeting…come on.

(Image: Publicity Picture)

“So I thought it had probably leaked from the BBC. Then when I found out how it had leaked, it was a bit of a shock.”

The author – worth an ­estimated £700million – says while her rise from struggling single mum to hit writer is an ­inspiration for some, there might be others “who want to kneecap me”.

Rowling also revealed that when she was researching the locations for her London-set books with her ­husband, Dr Neil Murray, she thought her identity had been ­rumbled.

She said: “There’s a little cafe by Smithfield market that I used as a ­location in the second Strike book and this was before I’d been unmasked. My husband and I went there really early.

“It was so atmospheric opposite the meat market and this man came in, in a high-vis jacket. He had just been unloading meat carcasses.

“He said at the top of his voice, ­‘Someone told me JK Rowling was in here’ and he looked directly at me and he then went, ‘I wouldn’t know what she looks like’ and walked out again. Course, I just froze…we both just looked at each other and that was that.”